SET BACK: Laxman (left) and Ganguly

I don't believe that any team has a "home" advantage. What a team may have are players who can use home conditions better. To win away from home, a team needs supreme confidence.

After all, the West Indies team of the late 1970s and '80s, with its battery of fast bowlers, went everywhere and still won. The Indian team of the early '70s, with its spinners, also won away from home. It's all question of having the right people for the job.

In this series, the better team won simply because it took the chances it got. The Indians did not capitalise on their win in Trinidad, went to Barbados in a very tentative mood and paid for that.

WINNING WAYS: The West Indies took all their chances—and the series too

Sourav Ganguly was correct when he said the Indians lost the decider because they began poorly-neither bowling nor batting well first up. The West Indies managed over 400 runs, proof that the Indians were not ready for the fray, despite winning an important toss.

Actually India may have played into the hands of the West Indies. It is true that our side has been somewhat susceptible to medium-paced swing bowling; but today they are more worried about really good spin bowling. India, for once, lacked that.

Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Javagal Srinath are all competent bowlers without being destructive. None of them would get a five-wicket haul cheaply since they are not dynamic. Khan and Nehra are potentially good, but they must realise their limitations. They try to bowl too fast, negating their effectiveness in swinging the ball. They must learn to know what to do and when to do it. Therefore, India needs two spinners to work with two of the faster bowlers.

Harbhajan Singh is okay and so is Anil Kumble, but comparing them to the old spin quartet is like comparing Michael Holding to Cameron Cuffy. The Indians must go back to the drawing board and use whatever made them successful in the past. Two opening bowlers and then two dynamic spinners, or even three, to win games at home or abroad, despite the pitches around the world.

The Indian plan was to attack the West Indians with the faster bowlers. While Khan, Srinath and Nehra are competent bowlers, their fitness and readiness must come into play too. They must be ready for five Test matches, especially back-to-back games which require the ultimate fitness. One did not always get the impression that they were fully ready for five Test matches.

The psychological barrier of not winning away from home must now be telling on the Indians. Even when they get in a winning position, they are so unaccustomed to it that they fail to capitalise.

The Kensington Oval pitch might have had some extra pace and bounce but if the Indians could bat in Australia then batting in Barbados should not have been a problem. Jamaica was even better for batting than expected, despite the grass left on. After all, the West Indies did manage 422, so the Indians have no excuse for getting so few in their first innings.

In Jamaica, the Indians won the toss and did the right thing, attacked by fielding first, but then they bowled so badly that they were out of the last Test by the end of the first day. Unless they had batted well, which they did not, the game was lost too, as it eventually was.

Professional sport is simply about doing the simple things correctly, regularly. India did not seem to be keeping to this edict. The Indian captain Ganguly, for all his personal charm, does not seem to be able to get the best out of his players. He could be seen many times during the series remonstrating with his players on the field of play. That is a no-no. The first thing that any player needs is confidence and that usually come from the leader and only then from the player himself.

In terms of batsmanship, Shivnarine Chanderpaul showed, in his own style, how it should be done. A man must always know his limitations and V.V.S. Laxman, for India, did that too. Rahul Dravid did also try, but Ganguly and Tendulkar seemed to be unable to adjust to what was required: the ability to graft, play long innings and work hard for the success needed.

For the West Indies, this win obliterates the loss last year to South Africa, but it also shows that the team can play better at home than away. Only when the West Indies start winning away from home can one suggest that progress has been made. But the win would give confidence, at least for the one-day series. The West Indies will now be better equipped, psychologically and physically, for what is to follow.

Former West Indian fast bowler Colin Croft is a columnist for the website cricinfo.com