It is impossible to ignore the negative elements that suddenly engulfed the 1998 Red Stripe Bowl at its most visible moment: the fanfared Final Four Weekend when the championship would be decided.

There were positive aspects as well, primarily the emergence of a few exciting young players, but these inevitably were overshadowed by the administrative shambles that have seemingly become an inescapable part of West Indies cricket.

The embarrassing confusion over who had won the calculator decision in the rain-shortened semi-final, the doubts over which team had topped the preliminary group in Guyana and the installation of teams of cricketers, two to share the same bed, at a resort hotel meant for romancing couples was what has become standard operating procedure for those who run the game in these parts.

All of this was compounded by the disgraceful bully-boy tantrum of Curtly Ambrose, one of the greatest and most popular of current West Indies cricketers, marching fully 30 yards from his bowling mark to verbally abuse square-leg umpire Thomas Wilson, and by the equal disgrace of the pifling US$24 punishment for someone who had been already twice severely reprimanded for his mercurial behaviour by the WICB.

Such misdemeanours have all simply added to the host of others that have so distressed and humiliated us over the past year – the confusion and controversy over the change of captaincy, the selection of seven over-age players for the Youth World Cup, the abandonment of the Sabina Park Test because of its cart-track of a pitch, the shambles of the Nortel Youth Tournament and a few other less spectacular, but no less inexcusable, gaffes in between.

It seems as if the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and its territorial affiliates have initiated a new law unto themselves to stand along Murphy's and others of that ilk.

It is being etched in stone with every fiasco: Whatever there is to go wrong, will go wrong.

Surely the time has long passed for some action to halt this continuing decline into mediocrity.

When he assumed the presidency of the WICB in 1996, Pat Rousseau, recognised as a no-nonsense leader from his reputation in business in Jamaica, issued this warning: ``I'm going to be very strong on accountability and performance.

``I really have no intention of carrying along a set of passengers. The board was told that clearly.''

Two years later, those words ring hollow. The bus he is driving has become an accident waiting to happen and still all his passengers remain aboard.

The president was there at the Kaiser Sports Club in Jamaica last weekend and witnessed the turbulence himself.

He would have recognised that the appointed match referee for the second semi-final showed himself to be ill-suited to the job and should have been immediately replaced.

There were several well-qualified former Test players in the vicinity and available. Instead, the original choice was reappointed for the final.

Rousseau would have known that the Leeward Islands made an entirely valid point when they moved out of their accommodation and sought somewhere else where two men did not have to share the same bed.

In some countries, such an act could lead to a prison sentence.

And he would surely have known that Ambrose's tirade at the umpire was unacceptable and worthy of a penalty far tougher than what amounts to no more than the cost of a round of drinks at any bar on Jamaica's north coast.

If nothing more is done, we know why. Ambrose is a big man in West Indies cricket. But it is precisely because of his standing that better is expected of him.

Thankfully, there were some aspects of the Bowl to cheer West Indian spirits.

While there is justification for the other territories to feel excluded by its continuing staging exclusively in Guyana and Jamaica, the matches did take the game to the country areas in those territories and the response was heartening.

There were, reportedly, 10 000 at Albion in Guyana for the home team's game against the Windwards and excellent turnouts at such places as Uitvlught and Enmore in Guyana and Alpart in Jamaica.

To see Kaiser packed with around 7 000 for a final yet again not involving Jamaica was evidence that cricket still has its support.

Now the people of the other territories deserve the chance to see their teams in action as well.

If it is misleading to read too much into performances in the limited-overs game, there was unmistakeable evidence that a few new players of real talent emerged.

The Jamaican left-hand batsman and off-spinner Chris Gayle, the Barbadian left-arm all-rounder Ryan Hinds and the Windwards' batsman and off-spinner Vernon Dumas are all in their late teens or early 20s and did enough to suggest they would be around for a long time.

And Dumas displayed the qualities of a true sportsman when, on his own accord, he turned over his US$250 Man Of The Match award to the Roy Fredericks Benefit Fund.

The Leewards' newcomers, opener Wilden Cornwall and off-spinner Anthony Lake, had the look of quality cricketers.

All we need is the administration to match.