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It didnt take Sir Viv Richards long to discover the underlying problem with the West Indies team.

After just four days as stand-in coach for the incapacitated Malcolm Marshall at the end of the World Cup campaign, sharing the teams hotel, coach and dressing room, directing net practice and getting to know the players, the Master Blaster told a BBC television audience of millions that, if he was permanently in charge, half would go.

I personally believe we need a complete change, a complete shake-up, he said, charging that todays players dont appreciate what the game means to the people of the West Indies.

Until they realise that, they should take a back seat, he thundered.

Neither Richards call for transformation nor his censure of the players is new.

Yet, if not strictly in the way Richards means it, there have been repeated changes and shakeups by apparently confused selectors, both home and away. And that has been the source of much of the trouble.

In the past 14 Tests over three series against England and Australia in the Caribbean and against South Africa in South Africa the West Indies have had nine fast bowlers in support of the durable Curtly Ambrose and Courtney Walsh (Nixon McLean, Kenny Benjamin, Ian Bishop, Franklyn Rose, Merv Dillon, Ottis Gibson, Reon King, Pedro Collins and Corey Collymore).

In that time, they have used eight opening batsmen in eight different combinations.

Simultaneously, 27 players have been used in the One-Day Internationals. After the team went through to the final of the Wills International Cup in Bangladesh last October, defeating India and Pakistan on the way, no mean feat in the Indian sub-continent, four of the 14 were dropped for the next One-Day series in South Africa. Two were then reinstated for the series against England.

It is an inconsistency that suggests they are stabbing in the dark and are unsure of their own judgment. It hinders team building and fills players with a dread that a couple of failures will cost them their place.

In many cases, it is not so much that they dont appreciate the importance of their role to West Indian people. It is just that they are playing more for self-preservation than the good of the team.

There is now a break before the selectors have to next pick a team, for One-Day tournaments in Singapore, Bangladesh and Sharjah between early September and late October.

After that, the first year of the 2000s presents a daunting challenge with home series against New Zealand and Pakistan and full tours of England in the summer and Australia in 2000-2001.

Whether they follow Richards pronouncement and discard half and there are several obvious candidates it is an early chance to identify the players of the future, let them have a feel of the game at the highest level and allow Brian Lara a team he can mould into a settled, cohesive unit.

No one would deny that the talent is thin on the ground but talent is not everything.

Discipline and application are equally vital components of success. Ridley Jacobs is simpy the latest in a long line of West Indians who have proved that point.

As Ambrose and Walsh near the end of their best days, there are already a host of fast bowlers who have had a taste of Test cricket.

By now, the selectors should have made up their minds as to who are the best, the most disciplined, the most committed.

They seem to have chosen Ricardo Powell to take Carl Hoopers place as the gifted middle-order batsman, useful off-spinner and brilliant fielder.

Now they need to stick by him to encourage his development, not toss him away after one failure, as happened in the World Cup.

As they did with Powell, they chose Daren Ganga out of the blue for the tour of South Africa. It was not the most pleasant initiation for a promising young cricketer but his failure there should not be enough to bring the curtain down on a career that has hardly started.

There were signs against Australia that Adrian Griffith had finally come to grips with the big time and he will surely welcome a lesser new ball bowler than Glenn McGrath, whom he has had to deal with in each of his three Tests.

The two Jamaican left-handers, Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds, have shown on A and youth tours they are temperamentally ready for promotion and surely Ramnaresh Sarwan will soon convert his natural ability into big runs.

The cupboard may not be overflowing at the moment but it is not entirely bare either. Weve just got to be careful we dont throw away the fruit from it before it ripens.