A startling epiphany which could trigger public debate runs like is: ‘Given the state of cricket in the region, the West Indies has really outdone itself over the years’.

I daresay this moot is as interesting as it is contentious, especially since ‘cussing out’ the West Indies seems to have become more of a sub-culture than a pastime which is difficult to dispense with after a spate of inept performances over the past few years.

In fact, this sentiment would have germinated some 15 years ago — when we were ignominiously deposed, at home, by Steve Waugh’s men in the final Test of the 1995 series at Sabina Park.

Up to then, the Caribbean outfit had flattened all before them for close to 20 years while landing two World Cup trophies and enacting a string of unprecedented feats in both forms of the game, while an awestruck world lay at its feet.

That things have changed is a cruel truism that metaphorically rubs salt into fresh wound, but vilifying the West Indies team cannot be the answer even as we again engage in serious introspection after losing yet another series and before that, bowing out of the Twenty/20 World Cup without a flicker of resistance.

But rather than slaughtering Chris Gayle’s men for what really were spineless, shameful performances, ascribing some of the blame to the regional administration would not be inappropriate at this stage.

For, the sad truth is that our structural weaknesses are second to none in international cricket where we have dabbled for 92 years — since 1928 when the West Indies played its first ever Test match against England.

Tragically, however, even at this point in time, successive administrators have still not developed a professional league, even after deriving tremendous financial benefits and gloating when the great West Indies teams of the past comprising consummate professionals hardened by the rigours of County and League cricket in England strutted their stuff with an arrogance borne of invincibility.

Even back then, there was very little player-support from the keepers of the regional game who constantly piggy-backed on the professionalism and national pride of the players to bring success back to the Caribbean.

Oh yes, we all basked in the achievements of our world beaters of which Clive Lloyd, Sir Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Larry Gomes, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding and Joel Garner are but a handful, but what did we really do as a region to get us to that revered pinnacle in the first place, and sustain it?

As we recall those days of plenty, we also remember that is was because of the success of these professionals which prompted the English authorities to limit the number of overseas players in their domestic competitions.

In hindsight, we realise that that should have been the catalyst for change that we as a region never capitalised on to develop our own brand of professional cricket that could ultimately have attracted the world — of which we were at the centre — while ensuring a steady diet of high-quality competition for the development of our own players.

Sadly, we have found ourselves now having a mere handful of players plying their trade overseas at a time when there is a desperate need for professionalism to return to the West Indian game.

And even as we applaud the implementation of the Sagicor/West Indies Cricket Board’s (WICB) Centre of Excellence at the Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies — of which Jamaicans Andre Creary and Nkrumah Bonner are a part — the hope is that it will be an important fillip in a flagging product made weak by inept planning and lack of vision over the years.

On the contrary, the desired vision should translate into an urgent move towards the implementation a professional league in the region, supported by a speedy return to the home-and-away format for the regional four-day tournament to ensure that enough cricket is played at the first-class level, and that players can develop a culture of sustainability and endurance within the framework of a frenetic international schedule.

In fast-forwarding to the current ODI series between the West Indies and South Africa, with two matches to come, and in light of the embarrassment this team has triggered in recent weeks, I have no doubt that it is time for the WIB to introduce a results-based payment arrangement for its jaded players who seem to be going through the motions.

But that is another matter for another day.