England's 'biggest year in a generation' starts with Windies test

England begin a 2019 that England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief executive Tom Harrison believes represents a "once in a generation" opportunity with a West Indies tour that could yet prove uncomfortably awkward.

With both a World Cup -- a tournament the England men's team have never won -- and an Ashes on home soil on the horizon, it will be a challenge for England's leading cricketers in both the one-day and Test formats to maintain their focus on the challenge in front of them rather than be distracted by the bigger prizes ahead.

A three-Test tour and five-match one-day series in the Caribbean, which gets underway with a warm-up fixture against a West Indies Board XI in Barbados next week, should provide a good barometer of England's progress.

Joe Root's Test side are second in the world rankings, while Eoin Morgan's men top the equivalent one-day standings.

By contrast, the West Indies are currently eighth in the Test table and ninth in the ODI list.

England, fresh from an emphatic away Test series win in Sri Lanka that followed a home success against top-ranked India, will be firm favourites.

And yet England have won only one Test series in the West Indies since 1968, when Michael Vaughan's team sealed a 3-0 victory in 2004.

- Overwhelming favourites -
===========================