The Cricket World Cup has a huge hole in it

THE 13TH edition of the Cricket World Cup, which began on October 5th in Ahmedabad, India, will be the glitziest, most popular yet. Getting on for three-quarters of a billion people in India alone are expected to tune in. But in one significant respect, the event will be bereft: the West Indies are not playing.

The West Indies, a side made up of the players from Anglophone Caribbean countries, won the first two tournaments in 1975 and 1979, and reached the final in 1983. But their recent performances in one-day internationals—the 50-over format used in the World Cup—have been desperate. They were required to qualify for their place at the past two tournaments alongside other second-tier sides. Having succeeded four years ago, they were abject this time around, losing to the Netherlands, Zimbabwe and Scotland. After a decline lasting two generations, this represents a new low for the men in maroon. You may lose to Scotland at some sports, but not cricket.

The West Indies’ slide into mediocrity is a huge loss. Memories of the all-conquering sides of the 1970s and 1980s are sufficiently vivid for the Caribbean team to still feel like one of the sport’s heavyweights. Fans of many nations will recall matches—and frequent defeats—against the West Indians of old. Theirs used to be a glorious team, inspired by batsmen of dynamic authority, fast bowlers of methodical malice, and lively, musical supporters.

The invention of the short-form Twenty20 (T20) format in the early 2000s appeared to give Caribbean cricket new momentum. West Indian batsmen grasped faster than most that the route to success in that form of the game was to hit as many sixes as possible, rather than conserve wickets, a necessity in longer games. They built a team around powerful batsmen like Chris Gayle and Andre Russell, and an accurate spin bowler, Samuel Badree. They duly won the Twenty20 World Cup in 2012 and 2016.

But the players’ success accelerated the team’s undoing. Mr Gayle and his colleagues found themselves in high demand among the world’s domestic T20 franchises, which paid huge salaries for short-term gigs abroad—vastly better terms than the international side could offer. Every national team has faced the same struggle, but the combination of the popularity of Caribbean cricketers and the shaky finances of the region’s cricket board meant that the Windies were hit the hardest. Cricket West Indies (CWI), the governing body, admits that regular disputes over pay have led to “significant distrust between the players and administration”.

The disruption caused by franchise cricket appears to have led to a broader diminishment of the team. Following the example of Mr Gayle, leading players now pick and choose when and whether to play international matches. Last year the coach, Phil Simmons, lamented, “I don’t think that I should be begging people to play for their countries.”

As elite players shun the West Indies, cricket there is becoming ever more of a shambles. One of the coming generation of batsmen, Shimron Hetmyer, was dropped for the 2022 T20 World Cup after missing his flight to Australia. The team were flummoxed by the relatively cool playing conditions for the 2023 World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe after CWI chose the desert heat of the United Arab Emirates as preparation. Poor performances on the field will only make remedying matters harder. CWI’s share of global revenue from the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s global governing body, will shrink to less than 5% in 2023-27, from just over 7% in the previous rights cycle.

Even if the West Indies were able to build a settled squad, they face tougher competition from smaller teams. As the qualification tournament for the World Cup showed, sides such as the Netherlands and Scotland are getting stronger.

The ICC’s commitment to growing the game should offer some respite. As hosts of next year’s biennial T20 World Cup, the West Indies are guaranteed a slot. And they should get a berth at both the subsequent T20 tournament and the ODI World Cup of 2027, since both are increasing in size. Could the team’s performances there trigger a renaissance? It is looking sadly unlikely. In 2022 an independent panel commissioned by CWI to investigate recent poor performances admitted that “no entity, sporting or otherwise, has a viable future if its talent is not harnessed and effectively managed”. So far, little has changed.■