For a moment it appeared that common sense had prevailed.

There were opposing captains Chris Gayle and Andrew Strauss posing for the cameras on Tuesday and jointly holding something looking like three pieces of chrome tubing topped off with an oversized silver ball purporting to be the trophy at stake in the two-Test duel between England and West Indies. This same contraption also keeps appearing as part of the backdrop to the discussions among members of the Sky TV commentary team during the breaks in play.

Great, I thought. So this means the Wisden Trophy won’t be up for grabs as two matches don’t really constitute a proper series, and with obviously a general lack of interest in international cricket being played so early in England anyway, the authorities probably recognised that it wasn’t fitting to have the real prize on offer in such a truncated affair.

Better to come up with some artsy, stylised thing as a replacement that provides the series sponsors with their much-needed promotional mileage and gives the successful captain something to hold aloft after the final ball is bowled in the Second Test way up north at the Riverside Stadium in just over a week’s time. And this seemed only proper, for if Englishmen and Australians wouldn’t countenance their treasured Ashes being fought over in anything less than a proper rubber of five matches, surely the Wisden Trophy is also deserving of a bit of respect to the extent that a series bearing its name should not be reduced to a two-match skirmish.

Not for the first time though, I was wrong.

Yes, the Wisden Trophy is at stake, inappropriately I maintain, and not just because of yesterday’s embarrassing batting collapse after the fielding and catching had fallen apart the previous evening.

In fact, the manner of the tourists’ capitulation, especially after they had fought so determinedly and desperately at home to successfully preserve a shock series lead, suggested that they were making their own forceful statement that this match, and the one coming up next week at Chester-le-Street, aren’t worthy of the same status, especially as they are being played on the outer fringe of an English winter.

Well, we feared-some will say expected-the worst after the hot sun and flat pitches in familiar surroundings, and so it has come to pass under grey skies and with the few hardy West Indian souls in the stands bundled up against the biting cold and looking every bit as gloomy as the weather and the predicament their team is in after being brushed aside in the first innings for 152 in 32.2 overs.

Those figures are stark enough without the more depressing realisation that, from the relative comfort of 99 for two, the West Indies lost seven wickets for 29 runs before the last pair of Fidel Edwards and Lionel Baker added 24.

It wasn’t so much a collapse as an avalanche, with four wickets falling in the space of seven deliveries to generate chilling reminders of the two-day annihilation at Headingley nine years earlier in the fourth Test of the series where England regained hold of the Wisden Trophy after 27 years in West Indian hands.

So what do we make of this? An aberration, especially as the conditions on day two of this First Test were almost perfect for the type of bowling that Englishmen are best known for? Or an almost instant return to reality after surviving in a fool’s paradise of bland West Indian pitches designed to thwart any attempt by Strauss’ men to get back on level terms?

More than likely, it’s a combination of both for the regional side have made definite progress over the past 18 months, although not nearly enough to lure any sensible person into believing that it is all a case of onwards and upwards.

Look, Chris Gayle’s demise twice in one day will only intensify the criticism already levelled at him for choosing to join his squad two days before the first ball was bowled at Lord’s. And with a resounding cut-tail virtually booked at this stage, especially with three whole days still scheduled, the captain will have to face up to the accusations of selfishness, irresponsibility and gross dereliction of duty in the same way that he would welcome fulsome praise when things are going well.

Unlike politics and economics, which are always open to all sorts of interpretation and almost entirely dependent on the interests and intention of whoever is doing the interpreting, there is really no place to hide in the sporting arena, even when the light is fading fast, as it was on a couple of occasions yesterday.

What makes this predicament even more challenging, of course, is the prospect of having just one match to make amends for an extremely poor performance. In contrast, England had three chances in the Caribbean to redress the balance and just couldn’t pull it off.

Then again, this is what the West Indies Cricket Board signed up to without proper consultation with the players. So in some ways we are the architects of our own demise and, consequentially, the prospect of the shortest reign as holders of the Wisden Trophy since it was first played for 46 years ago appears increasingly inevitable.

After yesterday’s nightmarish experience, however, it seems that two Tests are just about right in limiting the opportunities for even more embarrassment.

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