For anyone over 40, it’s astonishing that Manchester City have managed to go so long without winning any notable trophies.

In the Sixties and Seventies, they won league titles, FA Cups and European competitions and dominated their rivals from the other side of Manchester.

Since then, things have been rather different with only an FA Cup final appearance in 1981 to sustain supporters.

However, on Saturday, they have another chance – and it’s a good chance too. In the FA Cup final once more, they face Stoke and are certainly the favourites.

Will they succumb to pressure or end the years of underachievement? Come 5pm on Saturday, we’ll know the answer.

It’s a question I hinted at in the last post. Gayle’s persona non grata, Chanderpaul’s ageing, who else is there?

Ramnaresh Sarwan is the other senior batsman, but in most other Test-playing nations, he would have been dropped and forgotten by now due to his inability to make the most of the skill he most definitely has.

Other than him, I can only think of Adrian Barath who genuinely shows promise. He’s done little of note, but looks the part in ways his contemporaries do not.

Other West Indian batsmen are virtually interchangeable. An ever-changing roster of men with a few eye-catching shots and little more.

The West Indies haven’t been a good Test team for some time now, but there have been hints that there could be a resurgence.

Occasionally, a fast bowler will show something of the old Caribbean fire and they’ve had a couple of decent spin bowlers too.

Unfortunately, most of these strengths are massively undermined by their batting, which has been woeful for as long as anyone can remember.

They don’t seem to want Chris Gayle in the team, deeming him disruptive, but unfortunately, he is one of only two batsmen worth his place in the side.

The other is Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who is approaching retirement age now. How can there not have been another batsman worth his spot in the last 10 years? Pretty much everyone’s had a go at one point or another.

Few organisations enjoy such poor relationships with employees as the West Indies Cricket Board, which is currently maintaining feuds with at least three of its biggest players.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul has written a series of letters complaining about how WICB pronouncements might wrongly reflect poorly on him. Chris Gayle says it didn’t help him recuperate from injury, as does Jerome Taylor.

However, this week the WICB released a timeline detailing Gayle’s and Taylor’s recovery programmes and stating that they did not keep to them and in fact returned to cricket before they had been passed fit so that they could compete in the lucrative Indian Premier League.

Is the WICB incompetent or is there a problem with modern Caribbean culture that means players act selfishly and irresponsibly? The story will doubtless not end here.

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