Today marks the start of a crowded schedule for West Indies cricket across all formats in the final quarter of 2025.

The Caribbean side — ranked sixth in Twenty20 (T20) cricket, with a new captain in Mr Akeal Hosein and a mix of experienced players and fresh-faced youth — faces 18th-ranked Nepal in a three-match series in that Asian country.

The uncertainties of fast-moving T20 cricket, and well-established vulnerabilities afflicting the West Indies team across formats mean Nepal can’t be taken for granted.

Former Guyana first-class cricketer Mr Rayon Griffith is the head coach in Nepal. That’s in the absence of Mr Daren Sammy, who is with the West Indies Test squad preparing for a two-match series away to monumental favourites India, starting next Thursday.

Regional cricket fans should take heart that the players in Nepal are fresh from the recently ended Caribbean Premier League. They should be sharp.

Mr Griffith reminds us that the next T20 World Cup is “coming up very soon, and the opportunity is there for players to showcase themselves” in Nepal.

Mr Hosein says experienced players should take the bulk of the responsibility while allowing younger ones to “play freely and do what they love and enjoy”.

Intriguingly, those senior players include former West Indies captain and leading all-rounder Mr Jason Holder, now 33, for whom no place was found in the Test squad for India.

According to Mr Sammy, who, in addition to being head coach, is the West Indies chief selector, Mr Holder remains in his thoughts for Test cricket.

He also says he will not rule out recalls for two other outstanding servants of West Indies cricket, former captain and long-serving opening batsman Mr Kraigg Brathwaite, 32, and seam bowler Mr Kemar Roach, 37.

Mr Brathwaite, a veteran of 100 Tests, was axed as opening batsman during the 0-3 Test series loss to Australia in mid-year because of long-running poor form. For him, we do believe a return to the Test side is very possible.

However, given the several talented young seamers now available, we struggle to visualise a rekindling of Mr Roach’s glittering Test career at his age. He was left out for the series against Australia, and last played Test cricket in a 1-1 result away to Pakistan in January.

To underline the point we are making, Cricket West Indies (CWI) did not recall Mr Roach when forced to make a change to the squad for the India tour because of injury to the inspirational 26-year-old Guyanese fast bowler Mr Shamar Joseph.

Instead, the chief selector — quite properly in our view — opted to replace Mr Joseph with the towering 22-year-old Barbadian Mr Johann Layne, who is among the rising stars of Caribbean seam bowling.

To be clear, Mr Roach’s record of 284 wickets in 85 Test matches places him squarely among the greats of West Indies cricket.

We accept Mr Sammy’s position that “… I am never in a position to say when a man stops playing cricket…”

But surely, there should be some kind of arrangement or understanding involving CWI and the players’ union, West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA), so that the outstanding servants of the sport can be properly honoured as careers wind down.

It’s past time to tidy up the transition process in our view.