West Indies' cricketing decline feels terminal – and that should worry everyone

New York Times

16-07-2025

The sight of Jofra Archer, all effortless pace and menace, returning to Test cricket after a four-year injury absence in England's tense and thrilling victory over India at Lord's was an exciting one for everyone who cares about the health of the ultimate form of the game.
Here was a fast bowler capable of one of cricket's most difficult and eye-catching skills — consistently bowling faster than 90 miles per hour — in full flight and playing a leading role in a classic Test that saw England go 2-1 up in their five-match series.
Yet the spectacular return of the Barbados-born Archer was also bittersweet for cricket lovers in a region with one of the richest cricketing heritages of all.
On the same day that Archer was lighting up Lord's, the West Indies team he could so easily have been representing crashed to arguably their lowest point in modern history.
Australia had set a target of 204 — tricky, but achievable, as West Indies sought to claim a morale-boosting consolation victory. Already 2-0 down in their three-Test series, West Indies were demolished for just 27, the second-lowest total in Test history after New Zealand's 26 against England 70 years ago.
Incredibly, it could have been worse. At one point West Indies were 11-6 — yes, six wickets down for just 11 runs — and staring at even greater ignominy.
West Indies' decline from the greatest force in the game — back-to-back one-day World Cup champions in 1975 and 1979, and undefeated in Test series between 1980 and 1995 — to sad also-rans has been a long time coming.
Yet the events at Jamaica's Sabina Park, scene of so many of West Indies great moments in a very different age, was a new nadir, and one that caused shock and embarrassment across the Caribbean.
'It's heartbreaking,' said West Indies captain Roston Chase. 'We thought we were in a position to win the game but then we had that poor batting display. It's something that has been recurring for the whole series and that makes it even more disappointing.'
'Disappointing' is probably not the word Sir Viv Richards would choose to describe it. Richards, one of the greatest of all West Indies cricketers and a man now summoned to an emergency meeting to try to sort out this mess, would likely choose a much stronger one than that.
Richards was the epitome of West Indian pride in both cricket and regional identity at the height of the glory years when West Indies ruled the cricket world. Their success was largely based around having a battery of fearsome fast bowlers — all as good, if not better, than Archer — but they had brilliant batters, too, and none more so than Richards, who became one of the greatest of them all.
Now the Antiguan is one of three legends of the Caribbean asked by Cricket West Indies to review the events of the last few weeks (although in reality it should probably be the last few decades) along with the captain whose strategy shaped that era of dominance, Clive Lloyd, and the holder of the world record for the highest individual scores in Test and first-class cricket, Brian Lara.
Dr Kishore Shallow, president of West Indies Cricket, talked in the wake of Monday's humiliation of having 'sleepless nights' but called for patience as a committee for cricket strategy and officiating that also includes great ex-players such as Desmond Haynes and Shivnarine Chanderpaul looks for answers and starts 'rebuilding and investing in the next generation'.
Investment is key, because West Indies' sad decline is all about money. The unequal sharing of the game's revenue that saw West Indies report profits of $88.4million (£66m) for 2023-24 compared to superpower India's $1.18bn demonstrates why so many of their best players now seek their employment in franchise leagues around the world as opposed to representing West Indies.
In June, Nicholas Pooran, the West Indies' highest-ranked one-day batter and one of the finest Twenty20 players in the world, announced his international retirement at the age of 29. It left many in shock but it shouldn't have done: it simply continued a trend of players opting to pursue lucrative contracts in domestic cricket.
West Indies are not alone in facing that challenge — South Africa have also seen players in their prime such as Heinrich Klaasen turn away from the international game — but, as their head coach Daren Sammy observed, they feel it acutely.
'More will follow in that mood, in that direction,' Sammy said. 'That's the way T20 cricket is now, and especially coming from the West Indies, with the challenges that we face trying to keep our players motivated to play for the crest, so I wouldn't be surprised.'
Money also explains why West Indians, including Archer, who has an English father and a British passport and chose to play for England rather than the region of his birth, and the England prospect Jacob Bethell, also Barbadian through and through, have turned their backs on the region that once was the envy of the cricketing world.
Unless the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council, devises a fairer programme of revenue sharing — that admittedly is largely generated by India and the other big powers in England and Australia — then it is difficult to see what Richards and his fellow legends can say or do to halt what seems a terminal fall.
The crash to 27 all out in Jamaica might come to be seen as the beginning of the end for West Indies cricket. But if it is, the sport will be much, much poorer for it.
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