Where to from here?

Are the West Indies caught between a rock and a hard place? David Windram explores..

“Does cricket make money in order to exist, or does it exist in order to make money?”

Gideon Haigh - Sphere of Influence (2011)

Fresh off “saving English cricket” earlier this year, West Indies now travel from the land of overcast skies and swinging Dukes ball, to the green seaming pitches of New Zealand; it certainly feels like going out of the proverbial frying pan and into the fire.

The fact that there is cricket going ahead given the current pandemic is something that should be celebrated. Even more so as there will be fans permitted, without restriction, to all matches on the tour. However, for West Indies, it is difficult to feel that much can be gleaned from the outcome of this series and more pertinently, how good this West Indies Test side actually are.

A couple of years ago the West Indies excellent YouTube channel released a number of short videos featuring various national players extolling the virtues of Test cricket. Explaining why it is their favourite format to play, Jason Holder, Shane Dowrich and Kemar Roach, to name a few, all took part. It was real affirmation for any lovers of the red ball game, however since that point the Test team has played an accompanying role to white ball matches, reflecting the wider trend across international cricket.

Doubly frustrating is who has provided the opposition when Test cricket has been on the agenda.

West Indies have played twenty five Test matches since August 2017. Of those, arguably only three have been against a nation of comparative ability and resources, when Sri Lanka visited the Caribbean in 2018. The remaining Tests have either been against countries ranked in the upper echelons of the ICC Test Rankings - England (9 Tests), India (4 Tests), New Zealand (4 Tests) - or countries well below West Indies in both rankings and ability - Bangladesh (4 Tests), Zimbabwe (2 Tests) and Afghanistan (1 Test).

An away win against Aghanistan was treated like an afterthought

This leaves no Tests in that time period against Pakistan or South Africa, the two countries directly above West Indies in the ICC Rankings, although two scheduled Tests against South Africa this year were wiped out by Covid. These countries, along with Sri Lanka, should be the West Indies benchmark. The lack of matches against these countries makes it very difficult to ascertain where the Test team actually are.

Good results against England at home raised expectations to unrealistic levels against India (h) and England (a), where subsequent defeats were met with the usual disparaging remarks. Similarly, convincing wins against Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan were pegged as routine and expected. Very much leaving a “no win” situation where punching up by winning against better opposition is a one off, and winning when expected doesn’t prove anything more than achieving the bare minimum.

The odd win against an England, India or New Zealand will undoubtedly provide headlines and invite plenty of nostalgic reminiscing to West Indies teams of the past. However, where we will see real development in players and the team as a cohesive unit, is competitive fixtures against teams of similar abilities. Test series where outcomes are in the balance at the start and not skewed massively in favour of one team have been all too rare.  

It is an exciting proposition to think of tuning in to the West Indies touring Pakistan, or a series against South Africa in the Carribean, where every ball is worth watching at the prospect of being decisive in the wider outcome of the series. Rather than going from Jasprit Bumrah ending a Test before it has even really begun, to a joyless battering of Afghanistan in the next. For any sporting team to develop they need regular competitive game time.

In the capitalist society we live in today money rules all. For Cricket West Indies this means the most financially lucrative tours - India and England - hold the greatest sway. Music to the ears of a financially stricken Cricket West Indies but unfortunate on a sporting level for West Indies cricket.

It leaves the West Indies between a rock and a hard place. In desperate need of matches against similarly competitive teams to provide engaging cricket for players and spectators, but the inviting dollar signs provided by cricket’s self coined “big three” being of much greater attraction to administrators.

Gideon Haigh may have made his comments nine years ago but the gravitas of them remain ever prescient vis-a-vis the have nots in the modern game.

Articled edited by Machel St Patrick Hewitt

——

As ever if you would like to have content published on the newsletter by all means feel free to drop us an email.

Leave a comment or reply via email with your response to David’s article. Your interaction is what helps grow the community and we appreciate every response.

We have a new podcast episode dropping next week but do feel free to go and listen to any of our previous episodes on Spotify, Apple, Google, Amazon etc. Search Caribbean Cricket Podcast.