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It seems all so self-defeating the amount of negative posturing we have seen in the build up to the West Indies last two series.

We have been prone to commit suicide for no apparent good reason.

Just before the tough series against Australia, there was an attack on the credibility of the coaching staff and this could only have helped in affecting morale in the team.

It was not the type of spirit you wanted to take into the first Test where the pattern for the series was likely to be set.

Not unexpectedly, we received some crushing blows throughout the Australian summer. We were wiped out.

This is not to suggest that the players were free of any blame but the point is that our own people should not be seen to be giving the opposition help it does not need especially when they are stronger than us.

Obviously, they don't refuse because they are glad for the assistance.

Why? If your family makes you a criminal, then everybody else might feel justified in doing the same.

But just when I thought we had learnt our lesson, there we were again on the eve of the South African series with a lot of bitterness and instability surfacing around the cricket.

We have been getting some bad vibes that will simply be of no help or value to the players who will have the responsibility to represent us over the next two months against arguably the No.2 team in the world.

The South Africans must be laughing at us. Even when they arrived, they found it a tad curious that we had not chosen a captain as yet. Then when this was done, the pull-down syndrome started again.

I am not saying that people should be censored for disagreeing with the selectors' choice; but the way some influential people put over their points, only helps to foster greater division and strengthen the evil hand of insularity at a time when we need to be united.

And more importantly, we are all still going to be labelled as West Indians whatever position we take or whatever the outcome of the series. We will all be painted with the same brush.

I must say that the West Indies Cricket Board has not been of much help to the present cause either.

The relatively late announcement of a captain and the sham of the training camp in Trinidad when 11 of the 16 players were involved in a Busta Shield final in Jamaica were but two of its mistakes.

Perhaps by the end of the series we will see who have been the real beneficiaries of the situations we often find ourselves in.

© The Barbados Nation