Countless times over the past decade or so, we have said things could not possibly get worse.

Countless times they have but there can hardly be any occasion when the West Indies cricket team has sunk quite as low as they have over the past six days.

They were trounced by 108 runs by Australia and by seven wickets, with 10 overs in hand, by New Zealand in Antigua last week.

The margin was even more humiliating against Sri Lanka at the new National Stadium at Providence yesterday. The loss to Australia's was the heaviest they had suffered in nine World Cup tournaments. The Sri Lankans trumped that, winning by 115 runs.

It wasn't simply the degree of defeats but more the sheer lack of spirit that caused them. As in both matches in Antigua, the difference in every aspect of the game between the West Indies and their opponents was humiliating.

The embarrassment has been compounded as this is the first World Cup staged in the Caribbean, an extravaganza in which untold millions have been invested to showcase the best we have to offer.

Cricket is the one endeavour, above all others, of which the West Indies' reputation for excellence had long been established, the envy of nations considerably larger and wealthier than our collection of small, former British colonies.

There was nothing more fitting for us to present ourselves to those who journeyed here for the tournament and the millions watching across the globe.

Instead, the image presented on the field these three matches has been one of weakness and failure.

The West Indies held their own only for the first 15 overs yesterday, restricting Sri Lanka to 50 for two after the toss allowed them to bowl first. Then Sanath

Jayasuriya suddenly pounced on them and they swiftly buckled under the attack like a weakling cowering before the school bully.

It was a repeat of the Australia match when they were similarly manhandled by another uncompromising left-handed opener, Matthew Hayden.

Hayden took 18 balls over his first run and then did as he pleased in scoring 158 from 143 balls.

Jayasuriya was 16 into the 16th over before flexing his muscles with fours and sixes that reduced the West Indies to utter ineptitude.

Bowlers could not contain the flow of runs, fielders fumbled, shoulders drooped, voices were silenced.

The inspiration and direction needed from the captain and the senior players were absent. It was Antigua all over again.

A measure of the despair was evident in a straightforward outfield catch missed by Dwayne Smith and the sloppy work on the ground by Dwayne Bravo.

They are, usually, two of the finest fielders in the modern game.

It was clear, even before Tillakaratne Dilshan placed an exclamation mark to the Sri Lankan innings by hoisting Bravo's final ball for six, that the West

Indies did not have the heart for a fight when they batted.

The order was shuffled around, with Bravo sent to open with Chris Gayle, but only a belated, mid-innings flourish by Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh

Sarwan enlivened their hometown crowd. But it was always going to be irrelevant to the outcome. There are are now nine days before the West Indies' next match, against South Africa in Grenada.

Bangladesh and England follow. The West Indies must win all to have a chance of advancing to the semi-final.

In the 1992 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Pakistan were in similarly dire straits. Captain Imran Khan's rallying cry to his team was to play "like

cornered tigers". So far, the West Indies have been like silent lambs.