For a variety of reasons, the two forthcoming Tests between the West Indies and New Zealand rank as little more than an irrelevancy as international sporting – indeed cricketing – contests go.
Yet for the teams, mainly the West Indies, they hold special significance. They are embarrassingly placed at Nos.7 and 8 on the International Cricket Council (ICC) Test table. Defeat and, with it, self-doubt have become habitual. It is the chance, against like opponents, to change the pattern.
For the West Indies to be beaten, or even draw, at home would be a setback to their clear improvement in successive series against more powerful sides in the
