The king of first two one day world cup, now fear elimination in qualifiers stage.

The team that has produced stars like Viv Richards, Chris Gayle, Brian  Lara, Darren Sammy, Darren Bravo, Kieron Pollard & Andre Russell have faced a fall from a grace in recent years in international cricket circuit. They were crowned the ICC T20 World Cup champions as latest as 2016 where Carlos Brathwaite pulled up a miracle hitting 4 sixes in a row to snatch the cup. The Council  Known for producing Hard Hitting Strikers & Tall Fast bowlers packed with exhilarating & exciting cricket have faltered to perform in recent competitions. Let’s see a detailed analysis on this fall from grace of West Indies.

What is unique about West Indies Cricket council?

Rather than a normal nation represented Cricketing Council, West Indies is a sporting confederation of fifteen mainly English speaking Caribbean countries & territories, many of which were part of British West Indies. It consists of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States Virgin Islands.

Since gaining Test Status in 1928, they have been considered a force to reckon with.  They had a domination on the game from around 1960s and were undisputed champions from around 1970s to 1990s . They have claimed the first two one day. World Cup and two T20 World Cup in 2012 & 2016 respectively. They have successfully hosted 2007 odi and 2010 t20 world Cup. The Caribbean premiere league (CPL) has also proved out to be a successful league.

Disappointing performances by West Indies in recent times.

The West Indies Cricket Team has produced some shocking results in recent times losing to small associate cricketing nations like Ireland, Afghanistan, Netherlands & Zimbabwe. They failed to make it to Super 12s in 2021 T20 World Cup , faced first round elimination in 2022 and now are struggling to reach even the preliminary rounds fearing elimination in 2023 ODI world cup. Some people on social media refer this as the rock bottom stage of West Indies. The growing competition from associate Nations , growing domestic league culture and high pay scale in those league don’t make things any easier for West Indies Cricket Council. Big Stars of the team like Andre Russell, Shimron Hetmeyer have shown their preference for  domestic leagues over International Cricket.

The reasons for this fall of West Indies

• Inconsistency in Picking Squads:

West Indies Cricket Board has been constantly inconsistent in picking Squads for major tours and Tournaments . The better players of their team have been left on various occasions and have also faced issues in attending flights . For instance Shimron Hetmeyer in 2022; Andre Russell in 2021 could not be part of squad for World Cup due to missing flights.

• Financial Crisis:

In recent times West Indies have faced economical troubles in paying the salaries to the cricketers which has made it difficult for them to host big nations like Australia, England & India which make them less experienced for bigger stages.

• Reliance on few players and lack of effective Player development:

Although West Indies have produced legends in past now the grooming of New talents seems to have taken a back seat. They have also relied on few players for results and performance. As Cricket is a Team sport, this over dependence on few player weakens the core of West Indies Cricket Team

So will now we experience a free fall of the past champions or an incredible comeback . Let’s wait and see it.