Come into the late 70’s and 80’s , the most feared team in the cricketing world with red ball was the West Indies with the likes of Malcolm Marshall, Joël Garner ,Micheal Holding Andy Roberts and many more spitting fire on cricket field . Continued in the 90’s were the bowler likes Curtly Ambrose, Courtney Walsh ,Ian Bishop. To add to their red hot bowling West Indies once had a batting line up of legends like Vivian Richards, Garfield Sobers Shivnarine Chanderpaul and the evergreen master of test cricket Brian Lara.
Such dominance in red ball cricket in the 80’s and 90’s somewhat started diminishing in the early 2000’s where many of these legends retired and West indies from being the most feared team in Test cricket went from being to High to the lowest form in all forms of cricket especially the red ball cricket which seemed to have diminished sadly in West Indies due to the rise of T20 cricket across the globe.
Rise of T20I Cricket and West Indies slump in Test cricket
With the rise of T20I format all across the world and its growing popularity , it is evident that this 3 hour entertainment in the game of cricket has raised eyebrows for youngsters in future who believes that the easy way to earn money from the sport of cricket is playing T20 leagues all over the world which due to many corporates stepping in pouring money and creating franchises players all over the world nowadays prefer playing T20 leagues over national duty.
West Indies due to its political turmoil and the conflicts of players with its board has often seen players with the likes of Kieron Pollard, Andre Russell , Sunil Narine and many more to ignore national team and play white ball T20 tournaments which has earned them the household name in every corner of the world. The importance to T20Is is underlined by the fact that in the recent past West Indies who are 2 times T20I World Champions(2012 and 2016) failed to qualify for the 50 over World cup in India.
The lack of interest of West Indies in red ball cricket has saddened the likes of Brian Lara who himself has above 10000 test runs with world record innings of 400 runs and 375 runs in the longer format of the game. Brian Lara who was instrumental in West Indies winning in Australia in 1992 test series where he made famous 153 batting in fourth innings has raised concerns as the newly appointed West Indian team hardly has any experienced player to its rank with main players focused on T20I World Cup later this year in their own backyard.
Brian Lara furious on Cricket West Indies (CWI) & players for prioritizing leagues over nation
Former West Indies captain Brian Lara has admitted that the cricketing environment has made it difficult to understand the importance of playing for the national team. Nevertheless, the legendary batter acknowledged that players can’t be faulted for choosing money over wanting to play for the country.
A cricketing powerhouse once upon a time, the West Indies have experienced a steep downfall as the best players have consistently missed matches to participate in T20 leagues around the world. Their current era is in complete contrast to the times when the likes of Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards dominated world cricket as West Indies will start as underdogs in the upcoming Test series against Australia.
Lara, who will mentor the visitors against Australia, reckons the board must do everything to retain bright young talents and make them realize what it means to play for the West Indies.
“I mean, we’ve got to face the facts. The franchise cricket that is being played around the world, it is very difficult for the West Cricket Board to compete with such lucrative opportunities that our cricketers have,” Brian Lara said on SEN Sportsday.
“I think we’ve got to, first of all, try to hold on to the young ones, the teenagers. For an 18-or-19-year-old to say, ‘I’m heading to the IPL’, or, ‘I don’t care about West Indies cricket’. It’s not just his fault. I just think that we have not sold what West Indies cricket means to us as Caribbean people and why you should be playing for the West Indies,” he added.
West Indies currently stand eighth in the ICC Test rankings and last beat Australia in a Test in 2003. The Windies have also not won a Test Down Under since 1997.
I want to see the talent come through – Brian Lara expresses hope for West Indies cricket revival
Brian Lara expressed his desire to see the West Indies put on a tough fight in the upcoming series against the Aussies, similar to the one they displayed in the Perth Test last summer.
“I want to see the talent come through. There’s a lot of talent. There’s always been a lot of talent, but this is a big stage. This is not Mickey Mouse, this is the real deal and Australia are not going to give any quotas. They (Australia) have already won three Test matches for the summer and they’ll be looking to make it five in total. So, I would like to see some fight and I remember being very proud of the team in Perth 13 months ago when we lost on the fifth day of the Test match,” he stated.