EVEN with all the optimism in the world, it is impossible to shake the notion that the West Indies team that leaves a week today (November 30) for its tour of South Africa is heading for a certain trouncing.
At the best of times, No.1 against No.8 is an equation that leads to only one conclusion in any sport, especially when No.1 enjoys home advantage.
In this case, an abundance of unwelcome circumstances further enfeeble the underdog.
It is just six weeks since six of the 14 on their way to Johannesburg, including captain Denesh Ramdin, prematurely quit the tour of India over a dispute about contracts and money, throwing West Indies cricket into as serious a crisis as it has ever endured. The fallout still lingers.
Those from the India fiasco duly signed their tour contracts for South Africa last Tuesday under a deal that the new Memorandum of Understanding agreed between the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and the West Indies Players Association (WIPA) would be renegotiated. It represents an obvious distraction.
Then there is the question of relations between captain and the others who departed India of their own accord and Marlon Samuels who has emphasized,
