Long, hard road ahead for West Indies

One conclusion is clear from the West Indies squad chosen for its forthcoming tour of Australia.

To have decided to send the same 15 players just beaten in both Tests and three ODIs in Sri Lanka to Australia, where the climate, the environment, and above all the opposition present altogether different, tougher challenges for the three Tests is an admission of a dearth of credible, available alternatives.

Chief selector Clive Lloyd and his colleagues simply have no way of assessing the competence of prospective Test players from a substandard regional first-class Professional Cricket League (PCL), devalued by the absence of several experienced players now committed to the numerous global domestic T20 franchise teams.

Nine West Indians have signed contracts for the Bangladesh Premier League, the closing stages of which coincide with the Hobart Test in Australia. Three are in Australia's Big Bash, December 10 through January 7. Sunil Narine and Dwayne Bravo headed directly from the limited-overs matches in Sri Lanka to South Africa for the closing stages of the T20 Ram Slam.

All have abandoned Test cricket yet are hardened cricketers whose involvement in the ongoing PCL would appreciably lift levels. As it is, the majority have appeared in little or no first-class cricket for their territories of late.