The West Indies first Test series in the post-Brian Lara era is now over and as was expected, at least by those of us who have accepted that the region's cricket is gone to the dogs, we were comprehensively beaten 3-0 by England.

As England's captain Michael Vaughn rightly said, his team, which was playing without arguably their best player Andrew Flintoff, was the superior outfit and were deserving winners as they had outclassed the West Indies in their batting, bowling and fielding.

Although we did not get a chance to properly assess Ramnaresh Sarwan's competence as captain because his tour was cut short by injury, I believe that even if we had the best captain in the world, the result would not have been different because we are simply a team lacking in real quality.

weakest Windies ever

Although Shiv Chanderpaul, with his brilliant batting, made a mockery of the sentiments I expressed in an earlier column when I said that Lara's retirement had left us without a world-class player, I still believe that this team must be easily the weakest West Indies team of all times.

While one cannot deny that Chanderpaul was probably the best of the batsmen who participated in the series, one cannot deny that our batting in general made a mockery of good cricket. Surely, our immediate future cannot hold a lot of promise with the major deficiencies that were exposed in the batting of the likes of Chris Gayle.

one-dimensional attack

In the bowling department, our one dimensional attack was pathetic at best as batsmen, who only months ago, were bamboozled by the Australians in the Ashes, were suddenly looking as easy as Sunday morning. Unless they quickly become better bowlers, I seriously doubt that Fidel Edwards, Corey Colleymore, Daren Powell and Jerome Taylor are equipped to take us back to top-of-the-world cricket.

Maybe the West Indies Cricket Board needs to start moving around the Caribbean and start seeking to identify some tall, fast bowlers with a view to preparing them for the future because I seriously doubt we will be getting any suitable replacements for Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Malcolm Marshall and the other 'greats' from the current crop of so-called bowlers.

disgraceful fielding

In terms of our fielding, I believe it is downright disgraceful and is no better than when the high-priced Australian coaches came here. I am not seeing anyone to remotely compare to Viv Richards and Richie Richardson let alone the brilliant fielders such as Roger Harper, Gus Logie and Richard Austin.

As controversial as it might sound, I believe the time has come for the West Indies Cricket Board to work out a performance- paid arrangement with the West Indies Players' Association (WIPA). Like workers in any other facet of life, the cricketers' salary should be commensurate with the value they deliver on the field of play.

We should also begin to seriously think about whether or not it is a good idea to continue to invest in players such as Marlon Samuels, who, despite his so-called promise, continues to be a phenomenal underachiever. Having played alongside the likes of Lara, it is rather sad that this player seems not to understand what application is all about.

Personally, I believe we need to start coming down very hard on our players, not necessarily in the same manner as fans in India and Pakistan, but surely our players need to realise that we are no longer prepared to accept their nonsense. Maybe the time has come to stop watching and listening to them as a mark of protest.