For the first time ever the West Indies will not take part on the Cricket World Cup when it goes down in India later this year.
The West Indies only have themselves to blame for the situation having gone down almost without firing a shot in Zimbabwe.
There is absolutely no way a team with the depth of talent to call on that the West Indies does should be missing out on being among the ten best sides in the world.
It might be tempting to pin the failure entirely on the group that went to Zimbabwe but the rot certainly didn’t start with them.
Since winning the 2016 T20 World Cup, the West Indies have been in steady decline as a white-ball power.
Former West Indies icons have stepped forward to express their concerns that the situation has deteriorated so quickly.
“It has been a long time coming,” former West Indies captain Carlos Brathwaite said.
“Obviously, another format, T20, missed out [on the Super 12 stage] as well last year. So in white-ball cricket there have been troubles in the past. I think this is the lowest you can go.”
Veteran broadcaster and former Fast bowler Ian Bishop also called for a review of goings on.
“We haven’t played consistently good one-day international cricket against the top nations for perhaps a decade,” Bishop told ESPNcricinfo. “I know there has been some introspection that has been taking place in the Caribbean. But [this] says that we are at a few seconds to midnight, and we need all hands on board to get the representation back to where it needs to be.”
The West Indies are two-time champions of the Cricket World Cup winning the first two editions of the event but they haven’t reached the final since the 1980s and have now missed the tournament altogether.
It is sad for cricket that one of its great powers and its most westerly one at that has fallen away so greatly.
