When India beat a full-strength Australia at home a year ago, I was thrilled. Not only had India beaten the best team in the world, but unlike all those dustbowl-wins in the early nineties, this victory had come on fair pitches. And for once, India had won matches through a combined effort and not by riding on the backs of Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble – they hardly figured in the series. The sensational arrival of Harbhajan Singh and VVS Laxman made the immediate future look very bright. It was reasonable to assume that we finally had a team good enough to break free from the web of stagnation that had gripped Indian cricket since 1986. A team strong and balanced enough to bring us that elusive victory overseas.

Zimbabwe was the next stop. It was now perfectly realistic to expect India to win the series, but they only managed a one-all. The Sri Lankan tour which followed brought no joy, and though we hung on to a 1-0 lead against England at home, a stage had come where only an overseas win could earn India self respect. Sourav Ganguly was man enough to accept as much.

In this context, the tour to the West Indies had vital importance for Indian cricket. It was going to be the least difficult of overseas challenges and it provided the Indian team a great opportunity to break the jinx.

When India landed there, West Indies cricket was in a shambles. Their team were suffering from an utter lack of self-belief, having lost 14 of their last 19 Tests, including five in a row leading up to this series. The main players were playing indifferently and no new players of promise had emerged. In comparison, India had seven players who were at the peak of their careers. It was a team sound in health and low in performance that had been presented with an opportunity to set the record right.

A five-Test series, a rarity these days, is always an advantage for visiting teams, especially for renowned slow starters like India. And nowhere else outside Asia would our cricketers have found pitches so similar to those at home than in the West Indies. Anything less than a series win was going be disappointing for me, personally. But that's exactly what we have got: another disappointment, another heartache.

To many cricket lovers, this series was about Tendulkar v Lara. But for both teams, the series was vital for one reason: international recognition. For India, success would have brought acceptance as a serious cricketing force away from home. West Indies needed a good performance to prove to the world, and more so to themselves, that they were still good enough to compete at the international level.

At the end of the series, only West Indies have achieved their objective. With England the next stop, it would be naïve to expect things to change for India soon.

I do think that the time has come to treat this moment in Indian cricket as a landmark. It has been confirmed that India are a team that needs to be shaken out of their hibernation. Sixteen years without an overseas win is a long, long time. It is time for the president of the Indian cricket board to take some radical measures to completely revamp the system in a way that directly affects our senior team. Radical not in terms of team selection, which is a common response each time we return from a tour empty-handed (obviously, that hasn't helped), but in terms of entirely new measures.

A contract system, which allows the board more control over players? A purely professional arrangement where players' fortunes rise and fall with that of the team? It's worth considering steps like these, which will ensure that a defeat hurts the Indian cricketer. It's common in India to see that the star status of a player is often inversely proportional to the success of his team. It is sad fact of Indian cricket that an Indian player rarely feels defeated by his team's failure. This has to change.

Sanjay Manjrekar was the mainstay of the Indian batting in the late 80s and early 90s. He is a columnist for Wisden Asia Cricket.

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