As the West Indies [Images] prepare to take the stage as host of the 2007 Cricket World Cup, one of its most iconic players paints a bleak picture of the state of the sport in the Caribbean.

"I think we've lost our way big time," former West Indies skipper Viv Richards [Images] said on Saturday. in an interview before accepting the Caribbean Tourism Organisation's Award of Excellence at a gala in New York City.

Sir Viv, as he's as he's fondly called since his knighthood, helped the West Indies win the first two World Cup titles in the 1975 and 1979, but has since watched the team descend to shadow of its former greatness in the 1990s.

He blames the decline on regional cricket administrators for not concentrating on what's important -- the players.

All the attention is on aesthetics and new stadiums being built for cricket's premier event in 2007, Richards says. One will be named for him in his native Antigua and Barbuda.

"I would love to see emphasis placed on getting the team in a proper competitive position ... but it looks to me the other way round," he said.

Perhaps that is why people like him are being drafted "to maybe explain what's gone wrong," he said.

An imperious batsman and brilliant fieldsman, Richards amassed a total of 8,540 runs in 121 Tests, as well as 6,721 runs from 187 limited-overs internationals.

But he is also widely recognised as a personality whose strengths transcended the sport to provide cultural and ideological leadership.

"He was one of the most imposing personalities in cricket who proved to the rest of the world that despite our small size we in the region can achieve greatness," the tourism organisation's chairman, Pamela C Richards, said before the ceremony.

"The Caribbean is as proud of him today as in the days he struck fear in the hearts of opposing teams."

Richards began his international career in 1974 when Caribbean cricket was widely admired for its entertaining style, but before the West Indies proved it had the creativity and staying power to do it consistently and be the best in the world. Through the late 1970s and into the '80s, that's exactly what the West Indies proved they could be.

"We finally did ... and a lot of people never expected us to have done that and done it well and with such a fine-tuned machine for such a long time," Richards said.

But now increasing numbers of youngsters in the Caribbean are turning to soccer and basketball, and Richards says regional cricket administrators must shoulder the blame.

"The administrators wanted all the glory for themselves," he said, adding that the "product" that is the West Indies team was not promoted and administered well.

West Indies cricket for years has been disrupted by arguments between players and the West Indies Cricket Board, based in Richards home island, Antigua.

Most recently the Board won a wrangle that pitted players who had personal endorsements from the telecommunications giant Cable and Wireless against the team's new sponsor, Irish-based

Digicel.

The argument jeopardised the team's tour to Australia in January, and prevented even players, including star batsman Brian Lara [Images], from playing in the first Test against visiting South Africa last month.

Despite bursts of brilliance when they joined the series, the West Indies were swept 5-0 by South Africa on their home ground -- a disappointing showing that has become typical in recent years.

"Maybe some of the administrators and ourselves never quite did our homework, (never) did what was needed to get some of the younger fellows involved and keep that torch alight," he said.

Some administrators thought they had "the knowledge to move West Indies cricket forward and I just felt they failed us big time."

That shows, he said, not just in the non-results in competition but neglected issues such as 'respect factors'.

If the process were a relay race, "I think we dropped that baton a long time ago ... ."

A great legacy may be lost, he implied.