They had been bowled for 162 and were under threat of being bowled out for less than 50 from the first ball of the second innings, being 7 for 37 at one stage and eventually capitulating for 88.

Complacency, after a decisive victory over Jamaica and slackness (on account of reports of some players partying in Tobago on the night before the match) were perhaps primarily responsible for that Shaw Park debacle.

However, it is to their credit, and that of inspirational manager Omar Khan, team captain Daren Ganga and the influential Lara that the campaign did not crash there and then. Their place in the super four semi-finals became the major concern going to Barbados where the leaders had been near flawless.

The players pulled themselves together and, not for the first time for the brief series, put on a number of decisive individual innings and bowling spells.

Victory seemed likelihood from the end of the first day when TnT made just 259 on an inviting batting strip but hit back with four Barbadian wickets for 15 runs.

The collective bowling effort of Mervyn Dillon (3 for 29), Richard Kelly (2 for 23), Dwayne Bravo (2 for 44), Dave Mohammed, Rayad Emrit, and Amit Jaggernauth restricted Barbados to 167.

Then came the big surprise as TnT threw Bravo in the opening role with Lendl Simmons in a bid to build on the 92-run lead. The new “chemistry” as Khan was apt to put it, threw off Barbados’ rhythm to add another 93 runs before losing a wicket.

Admirably, the top three batsmen made half-centuries -- Simmons getting a ton (115), Bravo an exact 50 and Ganga 59 retired hurt while Lara followed up a first innings half-century with 47 to help push TnT to 319.

Dillon, Mohammed and Jaggernauth did the rest with the ball to secure TnT’s first title in four-day regional cricket since Ranji Nanan’s team of the mid-1980s.

Everyone was elated: no least of them new TnT Cricket Board President Deryck Murray and his Friends for Cricket who sit among the board of directors and who would always be able to bookmark this success with the start of their tenure at the helm.

The former board, too (led by Alloy Lequay and Ellis Lewis), may, rightly, see this as the natural course of their development projects -- projects that have led to repeated victories in the region by TnT Under-15 and Under-19 teams over the past three years; and have led to hands full of TnT cricketers being selected to West Indies youth teams.

Quite naturally, once there exists a healthy succession of players (as far as fair selection procedure is concerned), players from the younger successful teams would be boosted by this senior team triumph, too.

There would now be that much more for them to look forward to.

They would have so much more pride in their nation’s expectations of them, along with a stronger sense of duty as far as meeting this new benchmark is concerned.

Young players like Adrian Bharath now have the impetus to keep working on self-development (physically as well as the technical aspects of their cricket) knowing the rewards in the end.

In the long-run TnT cricket and by extension West Indies cricket would benefit.

It is nice to have a string of successes at all levels from junior to senior but the important thing is to keep the momentum amid intoxicating success so to learn from the lessons of West Indies’ fall from might to blight.

Late into the regional side’s reign as world beaters, when questioned whether his new reign as West Indies Cricket Board President would put an end to an evident drying up of the talent pool, Peter Shortt was dismissive and said nothing special needs be done because there could never be a dearth of talent in West Indies. Well … here we are!

Anyhow, the important point is to take advantage of the momentum and euphoria to boost planned development and not depend on chance.

In this respect, we must also learn from Jamaica’s football World Cup qualification.

The senior team qualified for the 1998 finals then every youth team thereafter qualified for a world tournament.

Usually, true developmental momentum would start the other way around, yet the senior team’s success inspired all others and it helped that they had everyone else involved in one holistic development scheme.

This fixed the order of things with qualification through the junior ranks leading up to a second senior World Cup qualification.

Yet it never happened because of Jamaica’s preoccupation with foreign players, their fallout with coach Rene Simoes, their failure to stick to structured development and their refusal to take club football to a higher level.

TnT also had no such development plan in place, no serious club football but had a falling out with the existing coach when senior World Cup qualification happened.

Also, team officials are scouring the globe for foreign talent while having little more than a one-day screening and two-day camp abroad to accommodate the majority of TnT’s population of footballers based at home.

Satisfied with that, latest reports say, the coach will next week name a final work group of 30 players (foreign and foreign-based players included). The locals among that 30 will be part of a full-team camp in London February 26-28 and are being promised an exclusive gathering before preparation heats up in May.

The finals take place the following month in Germany.

Next Thursday will be three months since World Cup qualification (almost half the preparation time to the finals since eliminating Bahrain) and the lick-and-a-promise attention given to local players is all the chance they would have been afforded to make the team.

This shows the absence of a plan as much as it does a lack of respect for local talent.

The spontaneously conceptualised 2014 screening for visiting university students and Anton Corneal’s decision to keep himself busy with a session for the local pros must not be taken for a plan that existed before or one designed to capitalise on the momentum or euphoria of World Cup qualification that is specially designed to qualify us another time.

And don’t think any of it involves the coach and his World Cup preparation schedule which he told TTFF’s contentious public relations tool, TTFF Media he is happy with “because we looked at everything to put it together and I know everything that went on”. All in all, it remains an open debate whether this type of preparation and development would help TnT at least equal Jamaica’s record of a draw at the finals or to gain qualification at nearly every youth level.

In fact, qualification for the 2010 World Cup finals is also not a certainty since, by the above-mentioned omissions, there is no plan to qualify yet.

So, it is imperative that cricket does not make the same mistake of depending on chance. The board needs to take its development plan a step up.

While so doing, it should also consider utilising senior team members in clinics for junior and primary school players -- it always pays to “catch ’em early”.

More than that, the board must take the bull by the horn, see WICB failing in having a five-match tournament decide a regional champion, and organise more cricket to sharpen its players.

The busy club season is all right, but there is need for more mini series from as small as a home-and-away “South Caribbean” battle with Guyana, or an extended rivalry with perennial opponents Barbados, to a “Revenge Match” with the team or teams that beat TnT during the regular, brief regional series. You didn’t need to wait on WICB for that.

There is need for more regional competition of any sort -- even a “TnT Versus the Rest of the Region” showpiece.

Or a good-old-fashion schoolboy selection of players around the region by two chosen captains, serving the purpose of further exposing players and giving WI captain probables (cum-future-selectors) a chance for “international” exposure and practice.

These, really, are just some random ideas to show that more could be done no matter the financial cost.

The long-term benefits will redound to the improvement of West Indies cricket. So, enjoy the team’s success. It is temporary, yes, but let’s use the momentum for greatness.