It has been an age since the West Indies won a series against any major Test-playing nation. The decline that they encountered in the 1990s seemed to be irreversible. Even the presence of a giant like Brian Lara did nothing to reverse that trend. But today there is a spark of light that seems to be the end of a very long tunnel.

People will point out that there are many objections to treating this victory in any special way. After all, the West Indians won a solitary Test and that too on the basis on an extraordinary performance from two bowlers who have not replicated that effort. The pitches that the remaining matches were played on were dead and, to use the oft-repeated cliché, bowler’s graveyards. And in two of the matches, the West Indians were 1-2 wickets away from a defeat.

Yes, we can all agree that the West Indians did not win this series by putting up a commanding performance. But when a team is getting whitewashed regularly and losing at home without even being able to put up decent scores, this is a major milestone from the West Indians. This is one step forward, but nevertheless a huge step in gaining respect and self-confidence.

And remember, this is not a one-off performance. The West Indians have been improving their performance in recent times, drawing a Test against Australia (which SA may not be able to do at home, we will see) and holding the Kiwis to a 0-0 draw in the 2-Test series.

What the West Indians have to do now is to take courage from this performance and build up their team to perform against other teams. They may not be able to reach the heights of their illustrious predecessors immediately, but if they understand their limitations and slowly work towards fixing them, they can be one of the strongest teams once again.