I think there is a lot in common between the West Indian cricket and the Indian Hockey. Both had great teams, great players and great pride, more than anything else great past.
Both are doing same thing, living in past and not thinking what should be done for the future, not adapting to the present and blaming every thing else except their only fault.
Its not all that bad to look at past and get some inspiration. But, it is a mistake to be too nostalgic. Coming to the present, I believe that lot of other sports have created interest for the West Indian, and subsequently they lost interest in cricket. Any game apart from the game itself, needs stars, icons and an achievement to keep it going. West Indian cricket lost every thing. Their stars of the game are not good ambassadors (excepting for Walsh and Ambrose). Lara could have done his bit to improve the image, but choose not doing so.
The key for a sport is the youngsters, and am afraid to say that Garner at this age is better than any of their new Bowlers. Richards even today would be better than any of their new Batsman.
To top every thing there is resource crunch, which is not helping the board in anyway.
All I can say is that the West Indian cricket needs an icon, a sports person who can take the the sport to the people, catch their imagination, just like Kapil Dev did for Indian Cricket. And who better than Lara to do this. He should get his proirities right, play well and take the sport back to the people, get their love and ......well we might just see the West Indian team win again. And one big win can change the complexion of the game in a country.
At the end of it, I believe that had Lara had this maturity, West Indian cricket would never had seen this day, because they desperately were in need of an ICON