The first three matches in the series all went down to the final over, underlining the closeness in strength of the two teams, but gradually, the West Indies began to dominate, capturing the final two matches in Port of Spain with “a little” in hand.

The way people started celebrating at the Queen’s Park Oval, I was a little surprised the crash dummy did not give the country a public holiday on Monday.

In the twinkle of an eye, or in the change of captaincy, mediocrity had taken a flying leap, and the form book turned upside down; things were so good with the West Indian players during this latest series, former captain Shivnarine Chanderpaul started getting the ball off “the square” again.

Chanderpaul was so badly “out of touch” since he took over the captaincy two years ago, he was painful to look at in the crease; so if the dour Guyanese left handed-batsman is getting his confidence back and the ball is “middling” the bat, that’s a great gauge of how the team is performing and you know the players are feeling good about playing cricket again.

The recent nightmare in New Zealand has been completely forgotten.

Sports fans, it is clear that Brian Lara is now doing what he wasn’t able to do during his two previous stints as West Indies captain; it is said age brings reason and Lara appears to have done some “reasoning” of late, and has now settled comfortably into his role of being the “old boy” of West Indies cricket, when for so long he was just the “boy”.

It has taken some time, but I think it is safe to say that the genes are finally kicking in (What a pity Bunty didn’t live another 15 years).

Lara is still a very young man with his entire life ahead of him, but his cricketing career is nearing its end.

Sad, but true, although I think he can stick around long enough to try and get that century at Lord’s.

I believe Lara has discovered that he can achieve without those monumental batting displays.

He can now use others to achieve, with an arm around a shoulder and a simple pat on the back.

The Kodak moment of the entire series, in my view that is, was his little discussion with Dwayne Bravo during the final over of the second match at Sabina Park, after Yuvraj Singh had struck Bravo for two consecutive fours with the second and third balls of the over.

Lara went over and had a little chat with Bravo, and the next thing you knew, Singh had lost his middle stump.

The West Indies never looked back.

However, I want to urge caution … a lot of caution.

In the last two years, the West Indies lost more matches than I can count after the ICC Trophy victory in England, so we must not rush to celebrate what could be a drop in form from the Indians, who have been playing a lot of cricket in the last year and definitely looked a little jaded in Trinidad last weekend.

I know it’s great to be winning again but we have to remember that most of the international teams playing ODI cricket can beat one another on any given day.

That is no comfort for India’s coach Greg Chappell, who must be ruing his remark after India took the opening game at Sabina Park, Jamaica.

After opting to engage the West Indian players in a game of “psychology”, the former Australian Test player never got as much as a sniff at the Digicel Trophy.

Chappell could be in a spot of trouble if his team’s results don’t start turning around and turning around quickly; nobody wants to be losing ODI matches within the year of the next World Cup, if you get the drift.

West Indies may be ranked eighth on paper, and India third, but the top teams in the world today -- outside of Australia --are pretty evenly balanced in the shortened form of the game.

Only the Australians are a cut above everyone else; all the other top eight teams are evenly balanced; and that is going to make for a great World Cup next year.

If someone can upset the Aussies, the race is going to be wide open.

For example, India has lost four consecutive matches to the West Indies but there is still very little between the two teams on paper.

And with luck running for them, the Indians could very easily turn around that apparent slump in form.

The Test series allows for a better assessment of the strength of West Indies cricket, especially with Anil Kumble coming back into the Indian Test team.

Coupled with spin twin Harbhajan Singh, the wily Kumble’s match winning potential gives India a slight edge going into the Four-Test series.

If a team is going to win a Test match, it has to be capable of taking 20 wickets within the five days of play.

Certainly, India has the capacity to do that with Kumble and the “Turbanator”, but the West Indies is still looking for a proven match winner, and with the dry Caribbean wickets expected to suit the Indian spinners, India has to be the slight favourite at this stage.

The challenge is for the West Indian pacers, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor, Corey Collymore, Ian Bradshaw and Dwayne Bravo, to come up with something extra as a counter to the Indian spinners, while left-arm wrist spinner Dave Mohammed is going to get an opportunity to prove his quality once more at the highest level after a two-year break from Test cricket.

The victory over India in the ODI series, though, has been a kick on the shin to the young, untested players in the region, and I think it is a safe bet that the West Indies cricket selectors are not going to try any of the new regional players in the World Cup next year.

It will be virtually impossible for bowlers like Andrew Richardson and Richard Kelly to break into the team, while left arm orthodox spinner Rishi Bachan is going to need a godfather to get him into the nets to bowl to Lara.

I suspect the West Indies squad used in the India series will be the nucleus for the remaining matches until the World Cup next year.

Of course, the Stanford 20/20 Tournament is going to bring an entirely new dimension to West Indies cricket, but our conservative selectors are probably not going to place too much value on performances in that tournament.

What a pity Alan Stanford did not structure that tournament to allow some of the less fancied territories in the region the luxury of using an international cricketer on contract; that would certainly have lifted the standard of play in the tournament and given teams like St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts/Nevis and the Commonwealth of Dominica a better chance against the bigger territories like Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados.

However, it would be interesting if the West Indies team could play a three-match series against a Stanford 20/20 Select XI after the tournament is completed next month.