We beggars really can't afford to be choosers.

Whether it's putting into context a 2-0 Test series triumph over New Zealand by the West Indies cricketers or the performances of our Trinidad and Tobago competitors so far in London, everything can't just be taken at face value.

Just to give you an idea about perspective being a hell of a thing, a heated debate developed yesterday on CVM Television here in Jamaica ahead of the men's semi-finals and final of the 100 metres on the track at the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. And what do you think callers were challenging double sprint silver medallist from the 1992 Games, Juliet Cuthbert, and the other members of the studio panel about?

Usain Bolt's chances of retaining his title? Jamaica sweeping the medals with world champion Yohan Blake leading the way? Will Asafa Powell finally deliver on the big stage?

No sir, the big argument was whether or not Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce had led from start to finish in repeating as women's 100-metre champion the day before. Imagine that. We grateful that 2011 World Championship bronze medallist Kelly-Ann Baptiste just made it to the final and their blood pressure rising over whether the "Pocket Rocket" was just behind at the start or was the front-runner all the way.

And that's not the only thing. Even as Ian Bishop was interviewing the winning and losing captains after the home side had completed a five-wicket victory over the Black Caps on the fourth morning of the second and final Test at Sabina Park, gregarious veteran Jamaican photographer "Dellmarr" Samuels was bigging me up over the fact that I made it my business to mention during the radio commentary of the cricket that another wearer of the green, gold and black, Veronica Campbell-Brown, had claimed the bronze medal behind Fraser-Pryce and American world champion Carmelita Jeter when, as he claimed, all of the Jamaican media were getting tizzik over the gold medal and hardly bothering to mention VCB's achievement, especially as she is the defending Olympic champion in the women's 200 metres and has a good chance of taking that title for a third time.

You see what I mean? Jamaicans don't hope for Olympic gold, they expect it, and especially after the phenomenal performances four years earlier in Beijing, led by the world record-breaking Bolt, they are even venturing to suggest that London 2012 should be better than 2008 if their four relay squads perform at optimum level.

On the other hand, of course, we Trinis may throw a little picong here and there just for provocation sake, but our record leaves us with very little on which to build any real expectation beyond making it to one or two finals on the track and elsewhere.

Of course there is greater optimism in the relays, where the male and female sprinters should be right up there with the other major contenders. However, as the Americans have often experienced at Olympics and World Championships, you could have the best, finely-tuned athletes in the world, but if they can't carry the baton to the finish line then none of that speed matters.

Just as efficient teamwork is needed for success in the relays, so too the West Indies played better as a unit and deserved their sweep of the short series against the New Zealanders. There is little doubt that Ross Taylor's side were the weakest of the five visiting squads from that part of the world that have toured the Caribbean. Still, the Black Caps have always been tough to beat and are an established Test-playing nation, unlike Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, two sides against whom we continue to enjoy a measure of dominance, with the exception of the 2009 series in the West Indies against the Bangladeshis, when the home squad was decimated by the loss of all their first-choice players in the midst of yet another one of those disputes between the players and the administrators.

In this, the lowest prolonged period in our cricketing history at Test level, you take what you get, especially as the last time the West Indies had taken any Test series (except Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) by a margin of two or more wins was in 1998 when the team led by Brian Lara prevailed 3-1 at home over England.

Next Test series for Darren Sammy's team will be in Bangladesh and, yes, if that sounds familiar, it's because the West Indies played two Tests in Dhaka and Chittagong just last year.

In case you missed it, the updated Future Tours Programme, approved by the International Cricket Council last year, sees lower-ranked teams playing each other more often so that there will be greater competitiveness to those series. The unwritten interpretation of the new schedule is that teams like us are too weak to provide for attractive, marketable duels with the top Test-playing nations of the world.

Instead of getting worked up and claiming that our proud history and dominance of world cricket for so long demands greater respect, we should first address the issues that have us at this lowly level and try to build on the successes against New Zealand.

Just as we might be jealous of Jamaica's glorious Olympic moments, our status in the world of athletics, while slowly improving, suggests that Baptiste reaching the women's final and 2008 silver medallist Richard Thompson getting into the men's event yesterday are about the best that we can do right now.

fazeer2001@hotmail.com