Woakes' five-for routs West Indies

It would probably be an exaggeration to state that Phil Simmons, the Ireland coach, actually salivated while watching this match, but he can only have been encouraged by what he saw at the SCG. The man whose side take on West Indies in their opening game, on February 16, knows that they have an excellent opportunity to start with a win.

The days when such a result could be termed a giant killing are gone. West Indies are now the sick old man of world cricket. They still have players of rare talent, for sure, but the system that produced perhaps the greatest teams of them all have long since been broken. The members of the last West Indies side to win the World Cup are now old men and are living to see the era they created tarnished and trashed. Bankrupt, divided, shambolic and dispirited, the current WICB may preside over the end days of West Indies cricket as we know it.