Tony Cozier: Only investment can save the West Indies from more humiliation

As disappointing as it has been, as embarrassingly mediocre as much of their cricket has been, the latest West Indies débâcle has come as no surprise.

What is unacceptable is that standards have not improved one iota since England first asserted their superiority over their previous persecutors. The indiscipline, the lack of commitment and the inclination to fold at the first hint of resistance or aggression from the other side were again repeatedly exposed, as they were in each of the previous three series against their oldest opponents.

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In England in 2000 and 2004 and in the Caribbean in 2004, the West Indies were beaten in 10 of the 12 Tests. The count has now deteriorated to 13 out of 16.

They need to go back to the first match of 2000 for a victory which, remarkably, was by an innings.

In the interim, there have been a two-day trouncing at Headingley in 2000, with Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh all in attendance, and all-out totals of 54, 61, 47 and 97.

The statistical calamity this time was the most overwhelming defeat in their 79 years of Test cricket, an incontrovertible innings and 283 runs at Headingley.

Yet there were extenuating circumstances.

The first day injury that meant they batted in both innings without their captain Ramnaresh Sarwan was the first. The absence of Shivnarine Chanderpaul was as damaging, as emphasised by the phenomenal record of the immovable little left-hander who offered such defiance in the other Tests. And the grim, polar weather hopelessly exposed batsmen with no experience of such conditions.

The loss of Sarwan for the remainder of the series and further injuries that kept Darren Sammy out and restricted Dwayne Bravo to two overs when The Riverside's gloom would have suited their medium-paced swing were further hindrances.

Already severely limited in class and experience, this team required a tough mental attitude to rise above such adversity. Instead, a mindset of defeatism has set in after almost a decade of failure, compounded by constant comparisons with its great predecessors. The loss of Lara seemed to have inspired a collective sense of responsibility in the batting at Lord's but it soon disappeared, placing the weight heavily on to the frail shoulders of Chanderpaul, the one remaining world-class batsman.

The disconcerting reality is that there is no quick way out. Sizeable investment in currently minimal facilities and the introduction of a domestic professional league to take the place of county cricket are urgently required to nurture available talent and retain public enthusiasm, understandably waning with every depressing defeat.

There is talent, as the likes of Bravo, Sammy, Fidel Edwards and Jerome Taylor demonstrate.

In a more encouraging environment, like Australia or England, such an exciting all-rounder cricketer as Bravo would not be contributing entertaining forties and fifties, as he did five times in this series, and then gifting his wicket to undeserving bowlers. And Edwards would not be compromising his 90mph pace with the proliferation of no-balls and wild deliveries, as he has this series.

After this tour, Bravo, Edwards and most of the others head back to the Caribbean, where the support systems are all but non-existent. They then have to get themselves ready for the forthcoming international series, which are all as demanding, perhaps even more demanding than that they have encountered in the past month - South Africa in South Africa in December and January, then Sri Lanka and Australia in the Caribbean from next March to June.

The results are unlikely to be any different to what they have been here.

The situation had reached such a pass that The Jamaica Gleaner, one of the West Indies' oldest and most respected newspapers, seriously advocated in an editorial following the team's equally indifferent performance in the World Cup that this tour be cancelled, that the West Indies withdraw from international assignments for three years and undertake only matches against 'A' teams while systems are put in place to revitalise the game.

More and more, it is beginning to seem not such a bad idea.