CAN WE REALLY CLAIM to be making progress with West Indies cricket? Win a game when the pressure is off and there is the triumphant shout: "We are on our way." Where is the consistency?

The opening paragraphs of the report on the second One-Day International against the Australians sum up the story.

"If West Indies weren't competitive enough in the opening match, they were even more appalling yesterday, especially with the bat . . . . What transpired in the second half of the [match] . . . at the Grenada National Stadium was painful to watch if you were a West Indian."

Nuh lie! The clumsy gymnastics that left the off stump an open target, gyrations in front of the stumps not knowing which way the spinning ball would turn, prolonging the agony and praying for relief, simple catching practice to the opponents, all so pathetic.

If the "three strikes and you are out" rule applied, the game would have been long over. What a waste of energy! You would have to know beforehand that an international game was in progress. What a spectacle!

– LUTHER G. FRANCIS