It took a while in coming.
But the West Indies are finally showing signs of improvement, shifting from a team that “seemed conditioned to losing” to one “battling to win”.
West Indies Cricket Board chief executive officer Dr Ernest Hilaire made this assessment, speaking at the Barbados Cricket Association’s (BCA) awards ceremony last Thursday night.
He expressed delight at the positive direction in which the cricket team was headed.
He said that although the West Indies had not yet been turning in consistent performances, they had shown determination and commitment.
“Though the victories have not been tumbling in, there can be little doubt that West Indies cricket is showing the signs of learning the first characteristic of any successful enterprise – the determination to succeed,” Hilaire told the audience at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
“We have seen a greater commitment to fight to the very end. We have seen what was once thumping three- and four-day defeats in Test cricket now turned into epic final-day battles.”
After years of disappointing results, the regional players have showed that they have the ability and the talent to compete with the elite teams.
This was highlighted during their tour last year to India, where they performed creditably, and then again in the just concluded Australia series, where they tied both the One-Day International and Twenty20 matches.
And despite going down 2-0 in the Test series, they demonstrated their ability to hold their own, putting themselves in strong positions, only to squander their hard work with a session or two of inconsistency.
Hilaire, who was delivering the feature address, said the recent development should chart the course for future success.
“This new approach is not far off from producing the results we all yearn for. Change does not happen overnight; it is a process, sometimes painful, always with mistakes and missteps, but once on the right path the results are certain,” he said.
“I implore you to recognize that from the days when our team seemed conditioned to losing we now have a team which is battling to win and believing that it can in fact achieve victories.”
