The sad reality of a World Cup without the West Indies looms - Wisden

The West Indies are likelier to not make it to this year's World Cup than they are to get there. If they indeed do not, it will mark the end of a glorious era.

Back in 1982/83 and 1983/84, two 'Rebel' West Indies sides had toured South Africa. Of them, Alvin Kallicharran, Colin Croft, Collis King, and Bernard Julien were part of world champion sides, and Faoud Bacchus had played a World Cup final in 1983.

There were also Lawrence Rowe, Ezra Moseley, Sylvester Clarke, David Murray, and Franklyn Stephenson – cricketers good enough to have walked into most teams of the era, who ended up risking their careers and reputations, partly because they were not close to being selected for the West Indian side.

One can see why. The West Indies did not lose a single Test series throughout the 1980s, and that form spilled over well into the 1990s as well. They won 43 Test matches and lost eight.

In ODIs, the numbers read 122 and 46. Include the 1970s, and you get 139 wins, 52 defeats, and two World Cups. The win-loss ratio stood at 2.673, while no one else could go past 1.3.

No team has dominated one-day cricket to this extent over a period this long.

When Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes were done, out strode Viv Richards and Clive Lloyd to feast on the battered bowling attacks, with Larry Gomes for cover. Richie Richardson and Carl Hooper arrived later in decade. Jeff Dujon, an excellent batter, lurked some distance behind the stumps, as the selected four from an endless supply chain of terrifying fast bowlers would torment the opposition.

Croft, Clarke, Moseley, Stephenson, and Wayne Daniel had fallen out of contention because Malcolm Marshall had arrived to join Andy Roberts, Michael Holding, and Joel Garner. The next batch, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson, Tony Gray, and Winston Benjamin, was just as fearsome, and Curtly Ambrose and Ian Bishop would join forces soon.

To break the monotony, they always had Roger Harper, an accurate off-spinner, capable batter, and one of the greatest fielders of all time.

Throughout the 1980s, they were the most feared, respected, and sought-after unit in world cricket. Every English county featured at least one West Indian. Australia invited the West Indies for six summers in the 1980s, for ODIs, if not for Tests as well. Having hosted six ODIs until 1982/83, India got them over for a five-match series the following winter, to go with six Test matches. The list is long.

As the giants walked away, Richardson kept the flame alight in the first half of the 1990s. There was the ubiquitous Walsh; Bishop did not last the decade, but Ambrose did. Brian Lara married batting aesthetics of the highest order with scores cricket had never seen. Hooper dazzled in his fleeting appearances. Jimmy Adams's absurd start ended in a steep decline, but that was compensated by Shivnarine Chanderpaul's steady ascent. And Chris Gayle arrived before the turn of the century.

In the 1990s, and much of the 2000s, fans of the 1980s generation sighed as they longed for a revival. But while individual brilliance amounted to a win every now and then – even in the 2004 Champions Trophy – the West Indies were slowly being reduced to a shadow of the giants of the 1980s.

They were a proud team who had watched growing up their predecessors rule the planet, but constant squabbles with the board, almost invariably over pay, became a feature of West Indies cricket in the 2000s. The grounds were no longer as full as they used to be.

The revival came from cricket's newest, shortest format, and a ponzi scheme fraudster called Allen Stanford. The Stanford 20/20 involved 16 teams, a significant improvement on the six in the WICB's domestic tournaments. Grenada and Nevis played in the semi-finals of the first edition, demonstrating both the unpredictability of the format and the depth of the talent pool.

As Twenty20 reached every corner of the islands, West Indies cricket surged again. As franchise leagues around the world grew in number and cash, the supremely skilled cricketers realised that they could make money even without depending on the boards, and it was acceptable to stay away from Test cricket.

The focus on the format bore fruit. In 2016, the West Indies became the first team to win the T20 World Cup twice. Two titles in four years put Daren Sammy's team on a par with Lloyd's. The Caribbean Premier League amalgamated cricket with carnival in a way few tournaments have. The fans returned to cricket, albeit temporarily.

But as years passed by, age caught up with the legends of this new format. Samuel Badree, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, even Gayle, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine – all of them either left cricket or were not considered by the board.

The shoes they left behind were too large to fill. Jason Holder, Kemar Roach, Shannon Gabriel, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran, Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope have all impressed in one format or the other, but as time passed, the talent pool could not keep up with other nations in sheer depth.

Yet, there was hope, of competing if not of winning the title, when the defending champions took the field at the 2021 T20 World Cup on the other side of the pandemic. They beat Bangladesh – marginally – but were thrashed by England, South Africa, and Australia, and were forced to play the first round in the 2022 edition. There, they lost to Scotland and Ireland by substantial margins. Not only did they not make it to the Super 12, but they finished at the bottom of their group.

The abject humiliation of plummeting from top to bottom in the space of two editions and six years, while hurtful, passed somewhat under the radar, because the duration of a Twenty20 match increases the probability of an upset.

This, however, rings differently. The World Cup will, without a doubt, be a grand celebration of cricket's dying 'middle' format. But without the first outstanding side in its history – and even the format – there will be a void the tournament has never known.

It may also be the depths from which cricket in the country – the empty stands tell a sorry tale – may never recover.