What’s wrong with West Indies cricket team?

What’s wrong with West Indies cricket team? West Indies cricket declined due to the rise of athletics and football in the West Indies?, the team today is struggling to regain its past glory – why?

West Indies cricket declined due to the rise of athletics and football in the West Indies, and the team today is struggling to regain its past glory.

It’s obviously something West Indies fans don’t expect, but they have to find a way to deal with whatever life throws at them. The West Indies cricket team is set to face the T20 World Cup 2022 challenge in Australia. West Indies have the ability to even win the tournament. They have quality players, however, they need to play as a team.

What Ex West Indies Players saying

The West Indies cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a multi-national men’s cricket team. West Indies Cricket is slowly fading away due to the misleading realtions among star cricketers and the board.

Ian Bishop

“Initially in West Indies, because the administrators didn’t know the value of T20 cricket and the talent of a player, he was the only contractor they had to choose when they wanted to play, and it had a bad effect on the game. We didn’t handle it properly. We lost some great players from West Indies cricket, that shouldn’t have happened. I would like to, ”- Bishop

Darren Sammy

Darren Sammy, the West Indies captain at the 2016 T20 World Cup, said the board had disrespected the players in the tournament. Former player Ian Bishop has always criticized the board for its handling of the pay issue with the players.

Winston Benjamin

Former West Indies fast bowler Winston Benjamin has approached Sachin Tendulkar to help improve the situation in West Indies cricket at the grassroots level. Cricket West Indies has been in financial trouble for a long time.

What’s wrong with West Indies cricket?

However apart from that cliché, there are many reasons for the poor performance of the West Indies cricket team.

Lack of good leadership

Leadership is the key to any cricket team’s succes: It must be remembered that the West Indies team is a collection of nations from across the Caribbean, so bringing them together and playing as a team can only be done when there is a leader who shows that there is something worth fighting for in the game.

Unfortunately, the quality of captains since Clive Lloyd has steadily declined; There is no single captain to get support from all the Caribbean countries and come together as a team which is important to be successful cricket nation.

A board that doesn’t care about the game

The biggest fault is with the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB). The West Indies Board of Control for Cricket, the predecessor of the WICB, had only one full-time employee in the 1980s. Unsurprisingly, it fails to establish the framework upon which success can be built. Since then, regular turnover of administrators and infighting between different Caribbean countries have added to its woes.

Relations between the WICB and the West Indies Players Association were often terrible. Since 2005, there have been several spats between the players and the board when seven squad members missed the Test match against South Africa due to a contractual row. Last November, the West Indies halted their tour of India midway following yet another contract dispute.

Best money for players in other places:

Usually the row between the players and the WICB is about money. So cricketers find new employers.

As Twenty20 leagues have sprung up around the world—especially the Indian Premier League (IPL)—West Indies players have found that they can earn more money playing for them than for the national team. Its biggest stars, including Chris Gayle, regularly miss international cricket to play in the IPL.

With the West Indies fielding weaker teams, many in the Caribbean now prefer to watch American games on TV. Baseball & Basketball are their high paying sports and show them a new and better life in America. More and more youngsters are targeting it instead of cricket.

Lack of First Class Infrastructure:

Earlier, West Indies cricket matured with the English counties as the final school. With the new visa regulations, playing in the English county is tough; So this adds to their systematic decline.

Rise and Fall of Cricket

One can say that the rise of BCCI as the big daddy of international cricket spelt doom for the tiny WICB. A by-product of the BCCI further hastened the downfall of West Indian cricket: Indian Premier League.

With inefficiency and corruption plaguing the WICB, financially-struggling players looked towards the cash-rich IPL. Players like Chris Gayle – who has hit two triple centuries in Tests, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Darren Sammy became IPL stars. IPL’s success prompted other boards to launch their own T20 tournament. One can now watch the likes of Gayle and Bravo in PSL, CPL, BPL and the BBL too. West Indian cricketers have turned into “T20 mercenaries” – those who prioritise clubs over national duties.

What’s wrong with West Indies cricket?

What shoud be done to the West Indies cricket team as a board? Is the West Indies Cricket Board able to understand and would do well for the team?

None of these above reason suggests a lack of love for the game, just a lack of desire to support a disastrous team through thin and even thinner. 

There is no doubt that cultural traits rise and fall throughout history in every society. As time and generations have passed, cricket has become an integral part of society. Hope to see West Indies Cricket in a good form in a coming years!