A member of the Australian media used to describe Alec Stewart as the game's most defeated Test cricketer. As a matter of fact it was indisputable, although the perpetrator bristled when it was pointed out that in second place was that well-known Australian loser Allan Border.
It is inescapable, though, that shortly before 10am in Port of Spain on Tuesday, Brian Lara completed his 46th losing Test match to sit alongside Border. But there is a difference. The Australian shouldered the burden of his team's batting in the 1980s when it had suffered the consequences of the Kerry Packer years and rebel tours to South Africa, then helped set up the dominance we see today.
Lara's experience has been the reverse. His entry into Test cricket was in the autumn years of West Indies excellence, with a steady decline since to the shambles that has been witnessed in the past fortnight. No player has scored more runs in a losing cause than the Trinidadian's 3,771.
West Indies are now ranked above only Zimbabwe and Bangladesh and will most likely remain rooted there for the foreseeable future. Defeat becomes tiring, the game a chore, and there is a culture of dissatisfaction within their ranks. Yesterday the morning television chat shows here were taken up with phone-ins from disgruntled supporters and the newspapers led their front pages with the resignation of Ricky Skerritt, the team manager brought into the executive four years ago to try to bring some stability and discipline to the team.
Skerritt, an outspoken critic of the team's behaviour, will remain in post until the end of the series, which must in itself create further tensions. It is hard to see how Lara's assertion that the game is not yet up as anything but bluster.
Certainly England know they have their opponents in disarray. The team flew into Barbados yesterday, some no doubt nursing hangovers. With the Wisden Trophy already destined to remain on the mantelpiece at Lord's, there is just the matter of tidying up the series here, with the third Test starting on April Fool's Day.
First, however, there is a three-day game to be started tomorrow, which may give a chance to some of the party who have worked diligently but not come close to a match. As ever, though, a balance has to be drawn between keeping players going when on a roll and allowing suitable rest.
Yesterday the England coach Duncan Fletcher dropped a strong hint that neither Steve Harmison nor Simon Jones would be required for the one-day series that follows the fourth and final Test in Antigua. But given the fitness record of the latter and the workload of the former over the past few weeks, it would be a surprise if either played this week, or indeed Matthew Hoggard.
So too Michael Vaughan, who needs a break from captaincy, and Mark Butcher, whose injured ankle still needs nursing. Nasser Hussain has squeezed blood from a stone but has been anything but flu ent and it would be in character if he demanded to play.
It would mean the pace attack being shouldered by James Anderson and Andy Flintoff, with back-up from Rikki Clarke and Paul Collingwood. Ashley Giles, the weak link in the bowling attack so far, will have the opportunity of as many overs as are thought necessary to turn him around.
Chris Read has kept wicket immaculately and it would do no harm for him to play strictly as a batsman, perhaps as an opening partner for Marcus Trescothick. That is an area where he has to make improvements, and Geraint Jones can take over the gloves.