SIX WEEKS of cricket ... Six weeks of first-class cricket is all a Caribbean cricketer can look forward to before he is shoved into the sometimes murky depths of international cricket.

I know everyone wants the West Indies to do well and I join you all in that hope. However, berating the team when it doesn't for a lack of commitment, poor technique or slow learning curve isn't quite hitting the mark.

I'll tell you why.

In the heyday of the West Indies, with the great teams of the 1980s, there was one difference that people seem to skip around all the time. Long before the players became established Test players they were experienced cricketers with a wealth of first-class experience at the very height of that form of cricket.

Those days are over in the West Indies. As early as 1930 when the West Indies beat England for the first time in its history with brilliant bowling performances from Lord Learie Constantine, West Indians had been honing their trade in professional leagues.

Feared bowler

Constantine, for instance, had started playing for the West Indies in 1928, but it was not until he had the experience of playing for the Nelson team in the Lancashire leagues in 1929 that he became a feared bowler.

Similar examples can be cited from all the eras in which West Indians were successful. All the members of the Three Ws - Sir Clyde Walcott, Sir Frank Worrell and Sir Everton Weekes - had thriving professional careers outside of West Indies cricket. Sir Garfield Sobers, Clive Lloyd, Sir Vivian Richards and, more recently, Courtney Walsh and Brian Lara all learnt much playing the professional game overseas.

Nowadays, the only time cricket becomes a job for a West Indian is when he dons the garb of his region and by that time he is asked to perform against people who have been playing professional cricket for many year.

A good example of the kind of experience we give away at the Test level can be taken from one of Australia's fringe players. Simon Katich, who has a similar Test average to our own Chris Gayle, can't get into the Australia team even though he has more than 11,000 runs in first-class cricket, 30 centuries and 60 half tons, and has played for Durham, Hampshire, New South Wales, Western Australia and Yorkshire.

Experience

With that kind of experience behind him, he should do better at the highest level, and were he West Indian, he'd be in the side. And what of Gayle? He has upwards of 9,000 first-class runs with 21 centuries and 50 half-centuries at an average of a little over 43.

While this, on the surface, seems impressive, he has only played half a season in the same leagues that Katich has learnt his craft.

Thus, when the two come to the Test arena, whom do you expect to do better?

The prognosis is, therefore, if the West Indies plan do well any time in the near future, and sustain good performances, they have to do either of two things - maybe both if possible.

Regional competitions

Find a way to lengthen regional competitions where the best of the Caribbean play against their equals for extended periods, let's say for nine months of the year, or get those talented players from the West Indies in professional set-ups overseas.

Until this is done and West Indies players are properly prepared for Test cricket, let's not kill the players.

Let's take our anger out on a board that did not foresee this eventuality when the Windies were on top in the '80s and let's take it out on them for not taking on the responsibility of rectifying the situation after 'their' blunder.