Funny how a single image can evoke memories that eventually take you down so many unexpected pathways.

Yesterday's photograph of four of the newcomers-batsman Justin Guillen, all-rounders Kevon Cooper and Daron Cruickshank, and pacer Navin Stewart-in the Trinidad and Tobago 15-man squad for the Stanford Super Series at the end of the month immediately triggered a recollection of a similar occasion more than 32 years earlier, when the Trinidad Express highlighted the arrival of a new quartet to the senior national cricket squad.

Then, it was hard-hitting batsman Theo Cuffy, wicketkeeper Randall Lyon, opener Frank Sorzano and left-arm spinner Arnold Oliver venturing into their first taste of Shell Shield action in the opening match of the 1976 season against Barbados at Kensington Oval.

In those days, you didn't have to bother with specifying the form of the game as there was only one, first-class, although the one-day game was added to the regional season that same year, no doubt influenced by West Indies' historic triumph in the first World Cup the previous year in England.

Of course, now, it is necessary to differentiate between first-class (and no, one-day matches, whether at international or regional level, are not considered first-class), one-dayer and twenty20, the money-spinning version that is threatening to banish the other two formats into the background and will earn the newcomers more money-if Trinidad and Tobago are successful in the three matches against the Stanford Superstars, Middlesex and England-in one week than the 1976 debutants probably earned throughout their entire senior national careers combined.

Keep in mind that while Sorzano and Oliver only had brief forays at national level, Lyon and Cuffy were regulars for almost eight seasons, so that essentially encapsulates the vast difference, financially, between then and now in the regional game, almost entirely because of the arrival of Sir Allen Stanford on the scene two years ago.

That's one pathway. Another journey is that the Barbadian team facing Trinidad and Tobago also included four newcomers in opener Teddy Foster, middle-order batsman Emmerson Trotman, wicketkeeper Ricky Skeete and fast bowler Wayne Daniel, the only one of the eight fresh faces in that clash in Bridgetown who went on to represent the West Indies at senior level.

Indeed, it was Daniel who had the biggest impact in the match, taking five for 34 in the first innings to limit Trinidad and Tobago's advantage to just six runs, and then removing the experienced Paragon pair of Ron Faria and Richard Gabriel, along with Lyon, to help bowl the home side to a 56-run victory on the final day.

Less than three months later, the "Black Pearl" of St Philip was making his Test debut in the final match of the series against India at Sabina Park, taking two wickets in the first innings of a controversial fixture in which visiting captain Bishen Bedi effectively surrendered on the fourth afternoon on a surface that had become mysteriously treacherous after the opening day.

Why were there so many debutants in the Barbados versus T&T duel of 1976? Well, that's another pathway as it takes us Down Under, for the West Indies were on tour of Australia at the time and had just been demolished by the pace of Jeff Thomson, especially in the fourth Test at Sydney, to go 3-1 down in a six-Test series that they eventually lost 5-1.

Yes, there were definitely issues about biased umpiring (no elite panel in those days), but it was the relentless assault from Thomson and Dennis Lillee, along with the support of Max Walker and Gary Gilmour, that left an impression, both on the bodies of West Indians and in the mind of their captain Clive Lloyd.

And this is where two tracks start to converge, for with the pummelling in Australia painfully fresh in the memory, Lloyd and the rest of the West Indies selectors more than likely needed no real prompting to thrust the raw but very quick Daniel into the Test arena in Kingston, moreso because a trio of specialist spinners-Raphick Jumadeen (now a senior selector), Imtiaz Ali and Albert Padmore-had failed to deliver victory two weeks earlier at the Queen's Park Oval, when centuries by brothers-in-law Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath took India to a then world record Test victory target of 404 with six wickets to spare.

Unfortunately for Trinidad and Tobago, there were no tearaway fast bowlers around at that time. Indeed, our bowling attack was spearheaded by the ever-reliable but hardly demonic Prince Bartholomew and...wait for it....Larry Gomes.

Yes indeed, Larry's exceptionally gentle slow-medium stuff served the sandpaper purpose perfectly, taking the shine off the ball before it was tossed to the trio of spinners to get down to business.

Yet, despite what many would take for granted as a debilitating handicap, Bartholomew led the national side to a share of the Shell Shield with, you guessed it, Barbados, the spinners shouldering their considerable responsibilities effectively, as they usually did then.

What does any of this have to do with the four young men looking forward to wearing the national colours at the Stanford Cricket Ground at the end of the month? Nothing really, except that it was the photograph of them at the Queen's Park Oval's indoor nets that started the mental journey far, far away from the Digicel-Stanford battle and a powerless West Indies Cricket Board.

It's certainly a much better way to spend a holiday than contemplating what's next for West Indies cricket.

fazeer2001@hotmail.com