West Indies: How the team that ruled the cricket world got off the ground

West Indies will be out for the first time in the 48-year history of the World Cup tournament.

The International Cricket Council (ICC) released the schedule of the much-awaited 2023 ODI World Cup on 27 June. This tournament will be held in India from 5 October 2023.

Meanwhile, people are equally interested in the ICC World Cup qualifiers.

Only the top two teams of the qualifiers will be able to play in the World Cup. Sri Lankan team qualified for the World Cup on Sunday. Till Saturday, many fans were hopeful that the West Indies team would also get the ticket for the World Cup.

In the most important match against the Netherlands in the World Cup qualifiers, West Indies scored 347 runs but still could not save the match. The way he played in the Super Six stage, there was a lot of criticism in the media.

This is the first time that the West Indies team will not be in the One Day International World Cup. Earlier, these teams could not even qualify for last year's T20 World Cup in Australia.

West Indies was the never losing team

The West Indies team is the same which won the World Cup twice in a row in 1975 and 1979.

For the third time in the 1983 final, he was stopped by the Indian team.After this, this team could not even reach the World Cup final match.In the year 1996, he reached the semi-final stage. They lost in the very first round or barely made it to the next round or quarter and lost.

In almost every format of the game, this invincible team was considered in the 1970s and 1980s. Especially in one-day matches, his aggressive game had a different identity.

In every situation, his batting order used to perform well. Vivian Richards, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Logie, Richardson and Brian Lara tore apart many bowlers around the world.

In the 1980s and 1990s, it was believed that it is not difficult to achieve any target for this team.

Then this team had the most dangerous fast bowlers. Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Malcolm Marshall, Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh, Ian Bishop were some of the fast bowlers who scared even the best of batsmen.

They also had excellent all-rounders in the form of Carl Hooper and Roger Harper. Jeff Dujon was a fine wicket-keeper and batsman, who played many match-winning innings.

performance degradationBut from the late 1990s things began to change for West Indies cricket.In the last two decades, apart from a few victories and records, the moments of happiness kept decreasing.

The team lost its shine not only in one-day cricket but also in Test cricket.Although he won twice in the T20 World Cup in the years 2012 and 2016, but here too this happiness did not last.

Later on, his performance in T20 cricket became very pathetic.

If we summarize the current performance of the West Indies team, then it is 8th in the current ICC Test rankings, 10th in One Day International cricket and 7th in International T20 cricket.

After winning the Jamaica Test in 2002, it has been 21 years since he won a Test match against India.After this series, India has won eight Tests against him.

Same was the condition of West Indies against Australia. After the 2003 series, they could not win a single match against Australia.In the last four years, in three T20 International series, India has cleaned the West Indies.

In recent years, many times the question has arisen whether the West Indies are really even playing as a team?

There were often allegations that there was a lack of unity in the team and that they were a team of players who played some great individually.

It was very difficult to win against West Indies

The decline in the performance of the West Indies team did not come in one year or one tour. The West Indies team struggled with its form since the 1990s. It was not easy for him to remove Viv Richards, Desmond Haynes, Greenidge, Marshall and Dujon, they retired one by one.

According to him, “All these players could single-handedly turn a match in favor of the team. Certainly Lara and Ambrose were players in the same range of individual talent.

“Ambrose was supported by Walsh, while Lara had little support. In the 2000s, the West Indies had to face defeat in most one-day international tournaments, including the 2003 and 2007 World Cups.

He says, “Gayle was a very powerful batsman. Sarwan and Chanderpaul also made some contributions. But as a team it was not enough. The biggest loss was in the field of bowling as they could not find substitutes for good players.

Regarding the reason for this, he says, “Athletics and basketball have attracted a lot of youth in the Caribbean islands. Football is also very popular. Apart from this, there are many problems related to the economic side as well. Often the players rebelled against the board that they were not paid enough like other teams. Apart from this, they do not have enough money to spend in cricket like the boards of other countries.

Venkataraman says, “The West Indies Cricket Board needs to develop and promote its young players like other countries. ,“Very few youngsters are performing well but are not able to progress after a few seasons. But the same players are doing well in clubs like IPL and Big Bash League. This situation has to be changed by his board, players and former players together.

For many years, the West Indies cricket team was known for its aggression, brilliance and poise whether it was with the bat, bowling or fielding.He had fans in every corner of the world. If ever West Indies return to their form then it will be very good not only for them but also for cricket.

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