West Indies few defeats away from being labelled ‘minnows’

The once mighty West Indies have been reduced to a side that suffers innings losses inside three days.

That West Indies is currently treading the path of a steep decline is but a known fact, with their latest performances only serving as fodder to that notion. Having suffered a whitewash at the hands of a Sri Lankan team that is currently going through a transition period, a Test series against the Australians would have appeared a disastrous mismatch for the fans in foresight. The series looks even more meaningless now after the West Indians suffered an innings drubbing inside three days. Amit Banerjee feels that the West Indians face an unwanted situation at hand wherein they are a few defeats away from being categorized as minnows, something that could have a lasting impact on the team’s legacy.

It is a sad thing to watch something great steer its way towards ruin. History has bore witness to the decline of some of the greatest entities in the world — whether empires, organizations, teams or even individuals. It takes great dedication, acumen, discipline and hard work for something to rise to the top, and all it takes is an equal consistency in callousness for it to freefall to the bottom. READ: ICC and rest of world must save West Indian cricket

It is a sentiment that some of the veterans of Indian hockey will share, as well the members of the powerful West Indian cricket team that ruled roost for over two decades. Indeed, one can only imagine what the legends from that era must be going through watching their descendants suffer innings defeats inside three days.

It was an absolute spectacle to see the West Indians’ rise from the pits of anonymity during the mid-20th century, and gradually chart their rise to the top over the next few years, before unleashing their dominance in the world of cricket for a period of about two-and-a-half decades. It was visually satisfying to watch them give it back to the Australians and Englishmen, against whom the rivalry often got infused with racial angles. Indeed, those were the good old days, as the fans in the Caribbean archipelago would remark more often than not.

The team however, embarked upon a different path altogether in the years that followed the 1996 World Cup, which incidentally was the last time West Indies made it to the semi-final of a World Cup. The first signs of the decline were exhibited in the 0-5 whitewash at the hands of South Africa, with Australia following suit two years later. Along with a first-round exit in the ICC World Cup 1999, as well as the retirement of the legendary new-ball pair of Courtney Walsh and Curtly Ambrose, it signalled the start of a transition period in West Indian cricket —  one that would also serve as the starting point for the side’s return to its old miseries.

Since then, things have mostly gone south for them. The moments of joy that have visited them in the corresponding years are but mere exceptions in what has overall been an unpleasant ride — whether it is their victory in the final of the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004, a brief display of consistency in 2006 or their ICC World T20 2012 triumph. Compare that with the ignominy of getting whitewashed at the hands of Bangladesh, which incidentally New Zealand also suffered a couple of years.

The current year has clearly been the worst of the lot, with the top-ranked players leaving for greener pastures in the T20 leagues around the world, while the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) is too busy squabbling with the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA) aside from battling a financial crisis. All of which leave behind an inexperienced and uninspired side that gets walloped across the world.

West Indies’ recent performances — whether turmoil in South Africa at the start of the year, an indifferent exit from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, 0-2 blanking at the hands of Australia on home soil, or the disastrous tour of Sri Lanka, have prompted fans of the team to abandon whatever hopes they had built after their side’s brave 1-1 draw in a three-match home series against England shortly after the World Cup.

The Hobart defeat, in which West Indies were thrashed by a severely-depleted Australian side will only reinforce the ever-growing comparisons with the rapidly rising Bangladesh and the Zimbabweans, and it is only a matter of a few one-sided defeats before the press and the fans start using the unwanted term ‘minnows’ for the calypso boys. That truly will be the final nail in their coffin.

(Amit Banerjee, a reporter at CricketCountry, takes keen interest in photography, travelling, technology, automobiles, food and, of course, cricket. He can be followed on Twitter via his handle @akb287)

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