OVERALL, the West Indies did not do too badly in the NatWest Series.
Their confidence at reaching the final would have been enhanced, especially since their nemesis, England, the home team, had to view the final from their home television sets.
But the real painful fact is the West Indies cricket team, especially in one-day games, remains very consistently inconsistent
No-one knows what will happen next, perhaps not even the players themselves.
For West Indies fans, the nerve and heart palpitations escalate and deflate with every other game - great heights reached one day, then the pits the next.
The best game they played was when the sun was on their backs against England at Lord's last Tuesday.
When it was cooler and overcast the West Indies found it hard to get going.
The selection of the team for the final, with two very inexperienced opening bowlers and supposed all-rounders to complete the bowling attack, was also interesting.
New Zealand not only out-played the West Indies but they practically won the game by the selections they made, preferring the slower bowlers Chris Harris and Daniel Vettori.
The Kiwis played to the conditions.
Overall the West Indies played well in spurts, but were never fully convincing.
They missed a bowler with substantial one-day experience like Mervyn Dillon or Corey Collymore.
Tino Best, Ian Bradshaw, Dwayne Smith and Dwayne Bravo were sometimes out of their depth with no real leader of the bowling department.
Everyone expected Brian Lara, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Shiv Chanderpaul to be fully effective and productive.
Lara and Sarwan were, Chanderpaul less so, but the juggling of the batting order did not help Chanders.
On the other hand, Chris Gayle showed that he has matured immeasurably, his patience extending itself and his abilities to allow him to become so much more an accomplished batsman.
After some early hiccups, Gayle was probably the West Indies best batsman, after Lara.
Gayle's bowling was, as usual, pretty handy too.
Fielding throughout the series was well below the standard required for such a competition and from a team with such a great fielding heritage.
Sometimes, it was as painful as it was embarrassing.
As a batsman Ricardo Powell should be trying to emulate the one-day feats of the recently retired Australian, Michael Bevan.
Smith and Bravo suffered badly from inexperience of conditions and sometimes seemed totally at sea with the moving ball.
But veteran players like wicketkeeper Ridley Jacobs will also be asking questions because he was never a factor at all.
I believe the idea of starting the innings with two real opening batsmen, with the inclusion of Devon Smith, is not a bad one.
But one, maybe two, of the so-called all-rounders should go.
On the plus side, the experience would have been excellent for the younger players.
The next one-day outing for the West Indies is the Champions Trophy in September.
But unless Lara, Gayle, Chanderpaul and Sarwan bat out of their skins, the West Indies will struggle badly. (BBC Sport)