@Brerzerk

Bygones test series were sometimes 2yrs apart. Era 50's-90's The Nurses, Butchers,Dujons and more played neither league nor county so are you saying it is only the practice/tour matches and nets made them world-class? Kalli, Yagga, Lewis, Davis, Shillingford et al were good and very good before getting any meaningful overseas contract if any. It was quality that sustained us. Quality of clubs, mentorship and individual character. Unless that grassroots grounding returns all else is naught!

I have fundamental issues with your argument

Take for example, Tagenarine Chanderpaul

The guy has not played test cricket in months. In what world were you expecting this cricketer to have any meaningful impact against a team like India?

Bro, the game has changed with technology, specialist trainers and cricketers making a meaningful income from FC cricket in India, Australia and England. We have not evolved

@Cuter

Reminds me of a corner shop. Refuse to introduce POS and debit card machines, as they can manipulate the earnings.

@Chrissy

Clearly you mean more warm up matches and three and four day cricket.

Yes, that's exactly my point

And if the issue is a lack of funding, then the Board must be creative

After 35 years of struggling, something different must be done.

@natty_forever

Reminds me of a corner shop. Refuse to introduce POS and debit card machines, as they can manipulate the earnings.

Correct is Right!

@Cuter

From the 90's when Rousseau got pros A brose, Hooper to play Jamaican club cricket and their was talk about bring 1 foreigner to each FC team I said the solution was development from grassroots. "High Tech" solutions for an under-developed so-called senior player is waste of time and money hence 35yrs.The first time Sobers saw Gupte was in tests but because of skill and innovation he mastered him. Same as they analyse our players ours analayse them too. The difference is they have the trained and developed basics (fundamentals) and skills., we don't. Is playing more tour games and tests going to solve that? Cart before horse....

@voiceofreason

What we can do is invite a couple county teams to play in our tournament as they usually come out here during the winter to train.

If CWI is claiming that finances so tight that they are forced to cut 2 regional teams from the regional red ball competition, how is that invitation going to be funded?

The county teams will pay their own way (including transportation to various venues) just for the “privilege” of playing in our domestic red ball competition?

@Cuter

And if the issue is a lack of funding, then the Board must be creative

Lack of funding is one issue. The main issue is the sheer volume of cricket being played.

Case in point…..let’s start with the UK tour of Ireland and England earlier this year.

ODI’s and T20’s aagainst England & Ireland

The Ireland ODI series was first. We lost the 1st ODI to Ireland, 1 ODI was rained out, and we won the 3rd ODI

That would provide any necessary warm up that was needed prior to the England series and we got whitewashed in ODI’s and Tests.

We won the one T20 that wasn’t affected by weather against Ireland at the end of the tour

That Ireland T20 series finished on June 15

The England ODI series finished June 3 and the England T20 series finished June 10.

The team head coach, some assistant coaches, and many of the players then left June 11 to return home to “prepare for the test series against Australia”.

That stated on June 25. 2 weeks later. The team was supposedly in a camp during that time.

Should they have been playing warm up matches instead? Let’s say the answer to that is yes. How did that fare for them in the just concluded England series when they had ample warm up time against Ireland?

Once they finished the Australia series, the vast majority of players went straight into CPL duty with their respective franchises.

Once CPL was complete, they went to India and Nepal to begin playing almost immediately.

They finished their last test match against India on Monday. They’re in Bangladesh for a match on Saturday.

When exactly will they get time for “warm up matches”?

The packed cricketing schedule doesn’t allow for warm up matches, and it’s not exclusive to West Indies. All teams face the same thing with very rare exceptions.

How many warm up games did the Indian team have before their test series against us?

And in between ALL of this cricket and the travel involved with that, players need to REST.

When and how do they get that rest?

@imusic

Perhaps our desperation for solutions sometimes identify the wrong problem to solve but it means we're thinking collectively. That's a start.

Like the lead post, imagine the issue is we don't play enough and the best the CWI could do is reduce the number of games every level of first class games they can find. I don't get it you can't tell me they can't find a sponsor for a week more of games one more round?

I find the commercial department which is responsible for finding sponsorship, is very poor going..

Now next with a reduction in everything how will the team fair?