Sadly, the West Indies collapsed at Durban and SA are scoring at nearly 5 runs an over in reply, being already over 70 runs ahead with 9 wickets standing. Looks like the unexpected win in the first test was a flash-in-the-pan after all.

Look on the bright side: Samuels and Taylor scored at almost a run a ball... Bravo and Sammy scored more quickly than Amla.. no one posted a better strike rate than Powell... and Ramdin almost matched the 120+ strike rate of Gibbs - the team clearly set out to entertain

Moreover... no WI bowler has (quite) been carted as much as Nel was

So hold on!

There were actually people out there who didn't realise the First Test win was an anomaly?

Did some people actually believe a resurgence was under way?

Shame on you.

I did not actually "believe", but I was kinda hoping so. It would be nice to have the West Indies back in world cricket as a proper fighting force rather than to see them hanging their heads most of the time, which seems to be the case these days. Imagine what the likes of Sobers, Kanhai, Hall, Gibbs, Lloyd, Kallicharran, Richards, Holding etc must be feeling right now.

I totally agree Nostromo, a West Indies side that could beat some good teams like Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan et al would be fantastic to see, it wasn't that long ago that the West Indies would knock over Australia, England and India easy. What a shame.

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Frank Skinner: "You know when Glenn McGrath trod on that cricket ball? Don't you wish it would've been a landmine?"

Even in the subcontinent, the vociferous local crowds never begrudged a West Indian team giving the home team a thrashing as much as they would have done other visiting teams. I have been to many WI vs India tests and seen the likes of Sobers and Kallicharran get applauded for their efforts as much as the local players. The current crop of WI players seem to have lost that hunger to win - something that has always been very important for Caribbean cricket. You no longer see the familiar spring in their steps that was so common in those days....there is a sense of inevitability in their demeanors nowadays that is very sad to see.

They will always have some batters (but when I see a Dominican Republic batter smashing the Chicago White Sox to a World Series win I wonder)

Even though the Dominican Republic does not play world cricket, it does set a lot of big ideas in motion in it's local area.

And the big tall lad's that get tempted to basketball. The prospective Ambrose's, Garner's, Walsh's etc that I get worried are getting syphoned out of their system.

Don't know where we go here

West Indies in decline with cricket and China wanting to go hard on developing cricket and willing to put money in.

interesting times ahead for the ICC..

It is not only Stateside basketball that is tempting youngsters to go off cricket in the Caribbean. In some parts like Jamaica and Guyana, football also has played its part.

Football has always been big in Jamaica.

I keep saying this over and over again, basketball has had little to negligible impact on West Indies cricketing decline.

All the factors for its decline were present when it was at the top of the pile, economic pressure affecting the region and also the changes in how money is distributed around the cricketing world that favours the bigger guys also have not helped.

You'll find lots of people who say they are not following cricket but they all take a quick peek at the score and then move on again.

The steps to get us back will take time and cost and none of these guys we have now will be part of the solution.

Yeah but we all play/support some type of football here in Australia

it does not interfere with cricket (which in most cases including mine is our secondary sport)