Drowning men, they say, will clutch at straws. News at year-end that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has granted West Indies cricket a reprieve by agreeing — subject to conditions — to visit the Caribbean for a four-Test series later this year was welcome relief.

Readers will recall that since the nightmarish decision of West Indies players to abandon a tour of India in October 2014 the BCCI had cut bilateral ties with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB).

Also, the BCCI — which is the real power in international cricket — held a demand for damages worth US$42 million over the head of West Indies cricket like the Sword of Damocles.

The WICB said in December that normalisation of relations with the BCCI was subject to the WICB and the West Indies Players’ Association “giving a joint commitment to complete, at a later date, the tour which prematurely ended in October 2014”.

The WICB, which finds itself at loggerheads with Caricom, will no doubt see the softening of attitude by the rich and powerful BCCI as providing valuable breathing space.

This, following the recommendation by Caricom’s review panel late last year that the WICB be dissolved and that the administration of West Indies be completely revamped. On the field there was no respite.

While the West Indies reached the quarter- finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup early in the year, the overall performance was disappointing.

Joy in May, when West Indies defeated England by five wickets in Barbados for an unlikely 1-1 draw in a three-Test series, didn’t last. A follow-up tour of the West Indies by Australia ended in a comfortable 2-0 Test series win for the visitors.

Even before the team left the Caribbean for a Test and limited overs tour of Sri Lanka later in 2015 there was widespread depression.

An outburst by coach Mr Phil Simmons about the selection of the team led to him being suspended. The youthful Mr Jason Holder, who had replaced Mr Denesh Ramdin as West Indies Test captain for the tour of Sri Lanka, must have felt like a fish out of water.

As predicted by most analysts, the West Indies were swept in the two-Test series in Sri Lanka. Worst fears were realised in Australia at year-end, as the West Indies rarely seemed to belong on the same field as their hosts — though there was talk of visible improvement as the three-Test series progressed.

Australia won the series 2-0 with the last Test washed out. But for cricket watchers with a discerning eye, perhaps the most disturbing aspect was the obvious difference in the preparation of players. Properly prepared from an early age to be the best they can be, the Australian players exuded confidence at every turn.

The opposite was entirely true for the West Indies. When all is said and done, the challenge for those who currently administer West Indies cricket is to rebuild from the grass roots up.

But given their loss of credibility over a period of many years, how do they find common ground and partnerships with governments, potential sponsors in the private sector, and a downcast Caribbean public to rebuild West Indies cricket? Without credibility, how will they even begin?