In exactly three months, on March 13, 2007, the West Indies will meet Pakistan in the opening match of the 2007 ICC World Cup at Sabina Park.

The West Indies, despite playing numerous one-day matches since September, have still not been able to decide on a settled side for the world's biggest one-day cricket tournament.

Ticket sales in the region have not been going very well and organisers of the tournament would have been hoping that a rejuvenated West Indies could have helped to send hundreds of local fans to the ticket counters.

Inconsistent performances

However, the regional team has been producing quite a number of inconsistent performances, this against a country which they will meet in the opening match of the tournament.

The West Indies are still searching for the correct combination in almost all areas. With Shivnarine Chanderpaul out with an injury, the experiment with captain Brian Lara at the top of the innings was a big failure. Coach Bennett King said he would try Lara at the top of the innings again but with the side lacking so much experience in the middle, it would be better if the West Indies captain came in at his customary four or five. The fielding, which had shown marked improvement in recent months, has started to become sloppy again, especially in the area of catching.

Two crucial dropped chances, the first by Lendl Simmons and a second by Lara and a botched run-out by Daren Ganga denied the West Indies victory in a game where the Duckworth/Lewis permutations gave them a decided advantage.

Bowlers chided

Lara himself chided his bowlers after the last defeat. It was the bowlers who had been performing well for the West Indies in most of their earlier matches but on a pitch which gave a great deal of help to the seamers they bowled numerous wides and handed the advantage to the home team. Jerome Taylor, Cory Collymore and Ian Bradshaw have all been fairly good but they will have to tighten up significantly when the World Cup starts.

The West Indian pacemen will be going up against the world's best batsmen on some very small Caribbean outfields. The Australians, South Africans and New Zealanders have a number of very big hitters who will not be afraid to put bad balls out of the playing area and into the stands.

Coach King has said it and I agree with him that Simmons' 70 in just his second one-day international match was a good sign for the future.

Players are always going to get injured or be unable to play for various reasons. Simmons has shown that there are adequate replacements coming through the system from the 'A' team level for players like the injured trio of Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo.

Simmons' maturity

The young Trinidadian gave away his wicket at the end but he displayed a great deal of maturity during his innings. It is something that has been lacking in the West Indies middle order. If he can put together two or more innings of that quality, he should force himself into the squad for the World Cup. The West Indies have a lot of strokemakers but there is a space in the team for a solid batsman who can hold up one end.

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