David Leggat: Windies need to muster more puff or be blown away

Chris Gayle of West Indies. Photo / Photosport

There's still five matches left on the West Indies visit but the whispers are growing louder: will this mob even win a single game on tour?

So far they have been ordinary. You can't even say they've flattered to deceive because no one was really sure they'd be a quality opposition before they arrived.

The test record hasn't been flash this year, save a fine test win at Leeds, and a series win in Zimbabwe.

They have won just three ODIs out of 16 completed games.

They even got soundly beaten by an inexperienced New Zealand A side in a warm-up one-dayer in Whangarei last weekend.

There's a clutch of young players in the two squads, players of talent but still with much to learn about hard, top level competition.

Take batsman Shimron Hetmyer and fast bowler Miguel Cummins.

Hetmyer is a young man with immense talent, a player who led the West Indies to the under 19 World Cup title.

He'll be around a long time but his batting discipline has to improve.

Cummins was, along with opener Kraigg Brathwaite, the pick of the test squad, full of energy and effort.

But the West Indies have a soft centre, several players not appearing to have the appetite for the fight. Wickets have been too easily given away.

The attitude at times seems too relaxed by half. How to remedy that will be a challenge for their coaches and support staff.

At Whangarei on Wednesday, the heads were dropping as New Zealand's openers George Worker and Colin Munro clattered into the bowlers in their rapid 108-run stand en route to 249 to win by five wickets.

The West Indies have a soft centre, several players not appearing to have the appetite for the fight. It seems unthinkable the West Indies won't be at a World Cup. But right now you wouldn't bet your life savings on it.

David Leggat

New Zealand should have won more easily. That it dragged out till the 46th over was something of a mystery.

Opener Evin Lewis looks a classy player, with a couple of ODI centuries behind him in the early stage of his career, and he appears to have a decent head on him. He bided his time at Cobham Oval, getting the feel for a testing pitch, before letting loose.

Lower down the order, Rovman Powell showed fight in getting to 59 briskly and Kesrick Williams had a clever line in varying his fast-medium bowling.

But half chances were missed, hard sure, but, as coach Stuart Law lamented after the match, they have to be taken if the Windies are to challenge teams above them, and at No9 most teams are.

It's all been a far cry from the halcyon years almost three decades ago. Then again, the West Indies have been in a hole a while now.

You wouldn't write off the T20 side. There are three games of the shortest form to come. Heavy hitters like Kieron Pollard and Carlos Brathwaite will be here.

But things are just starting to get a touch desperate for a side who are preparing for a World Cup qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe in March. There they'll face ambitious teams like Afghanistan, Ireland and Scotland.

It seems unthinkable the West Indies won't be at a World Cup. But right now you wouldn't bet your life savings on it.