Unsatisfied with the response, which would have undermined his authority, the manager stepped down.

That the results were by far woeful in the four-day series that followed and that that special unity-in-purpose -- that winning touch -- has remained absent for as long as he since has, is testimony to one fact: the value of Khan’s management style.

This was attested to over the past weekend when TnT grinded the star-studded champion nation, Jamaica, into the ground in the second match of the 2006 series, having previously taken first innings points from Leeward Islands in their opening fixture.

Ganga led by example (and this is no worn-out cliché here).

He stroked a masterful 93 after the early fall of one of the openers and this led to sequence of outstanding individual performances by regular and debutant players alike, all of whom he would later praise for victory: Tishan Maraj who stood with him throughout the early recovery, young Jason Mohammed who helped stop a middle-order rout, Denesh Ramdin who stroked a masterful 125 not out and Richard Kelly with a solid 63 that pressed home the advantage for TnT.

Kelly immediately pressed home that advantage by bowling Wavell Hinds before that Test star got into groove while; Dave Mohammed and Dwayne Bravo helped to keep Jamaica 193 runs behind.

Later Mohammed was at it again along with Rayad Emrit and Sanjiv Gooljar to bowl Jamaica out for 89.

That was after Kelly starred with bat for a second time and Lindl Simmons, Maraj, Gregory Mahabir and Jason Mohammed performed with certain credit with the bat.

It was a victory that deserved all the accolades.

They did everything right.

Nothing could take a single credit away from them.

Well … except the preparedness and commitment of the Jamaican players.

TnT would have its hands full with a new opponent in the third round next weekend but would be looking with some anxiety at Jamaica’s fixture to bring finality to last weekend’s triumph.

A big Jamaican victory would boost TnT’s confidence knowing that a giant has been conquered at St. Augustine.

Another Jamaica defeat, however, could do the opposite.

It is quite obvious, especially among fans, that strong as the TnT team spirit may be, Jamaica crumbled too easily on the final day, Monday.

None of the players adapted to suit the team’s needs at turning points in the match, especially in the final phases when survival became imperative. And this is a bad sign for West Indies cricket.

Players must know when to dig in and tame the bowling attack, or kill off the game until your team gains the ascendancy. No ascendancy, then no result.

For either side! That must be the approach to sticky situations in matches -- not to please crowd, not to wave a cavalier bat and swing with gay abandon.

There are times in a match when you need to bat with the daring of the “Master Blaster” and the dour of “Paddoms”, the class of Worrell or the grit of Croft.

It is only then (when accepting and applying this) can you properly manage any match situation and only then can West Indies cricket get back on top.

Somehow, as fans we continue to demand to see Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Gus Logie, Jeff Dujon and others from the great past all at once, in every player and right now.

The players react to this, trying to be who they are not, trying to be a Calypso Cricketer before properly learning to apply the fundamentals, and the end result is West Indies cricket remains staggered between woeful and “on the mend”.

One school of thought is to sack Wavell Hinds, Marlon Samuels, Carlton Baugh Jr. and the whole West Indian lot on the Jamaican team for such a poor response to what was required of them in the second innings against TnT (notwithstanding TnT’s apparent flawlessness then).

Another thought involves having them review video footage repeatedly and taking notes from the experts so that a different approach is made for the second match.

But that level of seriousness does not seem to apply to the regional series.

If you ever wondered why it is taking West Indies longer than any country in history to recover from a poor slump in Test cricket, therein lies the problem.

First of all, the regional series is not enough cricket to properly prepare any side for international matches.

We would like to believe it is, but we can only continue to fool ourselves. It is not now nor had it been even in the heyday of Lloyd’s almighty team as nearly everyone played for most of the year in English County Cricket.

Even many of the second and third-string Windies players were contracted in the English minor leagues.

The regional series may have been highly competitive then, not only for the occasional appearance of these stars but for the fact it provided something of a breakthrough for players wanting to get through on the English scene.

In spite of the sacrifice of Desmond Haynes on the premise that one must play a high percentage of these matches to be considered for the test team, there is really no quality demand in this series. Sometimes whoever makes the most runs or gets the most wickets would earn selection (with no second phase to groom him for Test cricket) even if he were a proven nets specialist; and sometimes yet top performers are overlooked entirely.

More often than not, tried and trusted Test players are selected to form the nucleus of the team regardless of current form, some outstanding regional players complete the team and, once selected that’s that.

The others have to sit out until next year because there is no ongoing first class cricket competition to keep them competitive. It’s just hard luck for those who were now coming to form at the end of the mini regional series.

And guess what: Test teams for the balance of the year are selected on the basis of performances at Test series for which they were selected after this mini regional series.

And consider this: At the mini series came collapses like Jamaica’s on Monday. For 89 runs!

TnT’s cricket was remarkable but I long for high-level, ding-dong battles at regional level.

That does not necessarily entail flailing bats and sizzling bouncers, but intense wars of attrition that call for occasional retreats and timely advances.

Once that happens there would be no guessing or mere speculation of West Indies cricket being on the up again.

For any of this to happen, we simply must play more cricket! Any form of it.

The inconsistency of teams for the balance of this series would prove this point.

There aren’t many ideas going around right now, so I guess Allen Stanford’s Twenty/20 plan (involving 17 teams) would do.

Never mind the so-called friends for cricket and their puppet master who may make you feel the author of this plan is out for their own ambitions, which is to position themselves to cream off the profits of the 2007 World Cup Cricket in the Caribbean.

Any plan that involves playing cricket in any form -- even if it were a circus of cricket tricks or skills (like hitting the stumps side-on from the boundary) -- must be good.

Stanford’s declared ambition “after having witnessed the decline of cricket in the region” is hope that “the tournament would be the catalyst for a resurgence of love for the game, that will signal the return of the glory days of cricket”.

I agree for one reason, as stated before: Any cricket would help -- just play!

By contrast, the regional series traditionally allows five matches. This was wisely increased to twice that last year (a home and away series) but those with different views and administrative clout have clamoured for less cricket again.

That would mean, at five four-day matches, we play just 20 days of regional cricket in the West Indies (including days like those against Jamaica) to prepare for Test cricket.

That amounts to four Test matches, whereas -- this year, for instance -- West Indies’ Test schedule demands 60 Test playing days.