See what a sense of purpose can do?

Despite the bacchanal that continues to boil over off the field, it would be very easy for the uninitiated to believe that we are on the cusp of a resurgence in West Indies cricket based on the evidence of the first week of the 2012 Caribbean T20.

With the exception of Chris Gayle (and there's no point going over well-beaten ground on that issue), all the top players are back and desperately keen to make an impact.

A year ago, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo chose to fulfil their lucrative contracts in Australia rather than represent Trinidad and Tobago. Now they are here, making spectacular contributions and playing as if their cricketing lives depend on it.

He hasn't got a game yet, but Fidel Edwards flew in from Sydney on the morning of Barbados' opening match on Thursday and was training with the squad that very afternoon. Dwayne Smith, meanwhile, has been off to a flier, innings of 49 not out and 86 extending a consistent run from the pre-tournament event in Barbados the week before. Wait. Consistent? Did I just say that about Dwayne Smith?

Speaking of flying, when, if ever, has Shivnarine Chanderpaul opted to take the aerial route so immediately and so often in any form of the game? Four sixes on opening night against the Leeward Islands before you could say "Watch me West Indies selectors!" and a second-ball dismissal against T&T caught on the midwicket boundary.

It was on the same Friday night people had to be turned away at the gates of the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium because no more tickets were available. Clearly officials of the West Indies Cricket Board were caught unawares for the venue was nowhere near being completely full, even if the recorded figure of almost 8,500 paying spectators was way beyond expectations.

If the numbers were a few hundred less the following night, when Barbados demolished Jamaica in the feature clash of the double-header, the scene was still very much the same: a lively, animated crowd responding to the passion and intensity shown by the players out in the middle.

Even diminutive fast bowler Tino Best was more demonstrative than usual, and that is saying a lot for someone who reacts to the taking of a wicket as if he had scored the winning goal in a World Cup final, caught the game-ending touchdown pass in overtime at the Super Bowl and is rushing onto the tarmac at Grantley Adams International to embrace a beloved son returning from a lengthy tour of duty in Iraq, all rolled into one.

We have come to expect excitement from Twenty20 cricket, even if it is built on a sandy foundation of abundant mediocrity. But when the usually unflappable Pollard is taking five sixes in one over off Anthony Martin and then brandishing his bat menacingly in the direction of the Leewards captain, when the previously sullen and indifferent Marlon Samuels is fluent, articulate and in praise of the WICB when interviewed, you have to wonder what is the motivation for all of this.

That, ladies and gentlemen, comes in the shape of the World T20 event to be played in Sri Lanka in September. Yes, there is again the lucrative prospect of a place in the Indian Champions League (the qualifiers at least) for the winners and, yes, there are also elements of personal, professional and national pride. If those are the dominant factors, though, why wasn't everyone involved in last year's Caribbean T20?

In keeping with a ruling from the International Cricket Council, the regional body mandates that only players appearing in the corresponding Caribbean event, or at least making themselves available for it, will be eligible for selection for the next global tournament in that format.

So they are all here, and even if it comes across as self-serving in one aspect—wanting to excel in a global event to improve their market worth—this year's Caribbean T20, with the second half getting underway tomorrow at Kensington Oval, has already confirmed that there are more than enough cricketers around of the calibre to make the West Indies a more than competitive unit, at least in this form of the game.

What it also reinforces is the fact that, for established players especially, there is little motivation to give everything, or even turn up for that matter, in the couple of T20 or handful of One-Day Internationals that are tacked onto the beginning or end of a Test series, or are squeezed into a spare weekend or fortnight for no real purpose other than boosting revenue from television rights.

Nor should we lazily assume that this is a very recent phenomenon in West Indies cricket. In fact, it is a complete fallacy to suggest that commitment to the cause was both absolute and universal when the regional side reigned for more than a decade as the most dominant force the game has ever known.

Now, though, apart from issues of pride and West Indian identity, which our social commentators can go to town on, there are simply many more financially rewarding options beyond the confines of national and regional representation. Expecting young men to not prioritise their own welfare in an increasingly selfish society is utterly ludicrous.

So let's just enjoy this tournament for what it is: our best players (minus one) giving of their best. Expecting anything more profound may just be an illusion.

fazeer2001@hotmail.com