The late Tony Cozier, the West Indian commentator, saw it coming. “There will be a time,” he said some years ago, “when West Indies will find themselves engaged in the ICC’s World League, struggling to avoid a loss to Vietnam in some tournament in Outer Mongolia.” As West Indies struggled past Scotland yesterday in Zimbabwe with 2019 World Cup qualification on the line, he was only half right.

He foresaw his own team’s difficulties and long-term demise clearly enough. He didn’t look forward to the prospect, for sure, but as a lover of cricket he would have put his frustrations aside and enjoyed watching the World Cup qualifying tournament over the past fortnight, even if he would have been saddened at the decision of certain