Where to next for West Indies as a Test team?

If the trend of heavy defeats continues, and if the board refuses to take responsibility, their status in the longest format could be in jeopardy.

Of all the harrowing days West Indies have endured on the Test grounds of the world over the past couple of decades - and heaven knows, they have been plentiful and persistent - none was as horrific as the two and a half it took to capitulate to Australia in the first Test in arctic Hobart.

The Australians were sensible enough to not expect a competitive challenge. Recent results alerted them to the situation. The tourists' loss by ten wickets to a Cricket Australia XI in their solitary lead-up match immediately justified the media's earlier proposal, impractical as it was, to switch the showpiece Tests in Melbourne and Sydney - assigned to West Indies - with those scheduled earlier for palpably stronger New Zealand.

Yet they couldn't possibly have foreseen just how limp West Indies would be at the start of a contest that offered them the chance to at least restore a little of their pride.