By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
Immediately after losing the 1983 Prudential World Cup, West Indies came to India to play what is called a revenge series under Captain Clive Llyod. West Indies thrashed India 3-1 in the six Test series and 5-0 in the ODI.
Despite the stupendous performance by Captain Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar in the series, Windies made all out efforts to put a damper on the Indian celebrations for winning the first World Cup.
Powered by four deadly pacers and classy batters like Viv Richards and Gordon Greenidge, the Windies had developed the prowess to beat any team anywhere.
But within one decade, the decline of the West Indies began. Except in T-20 formats on one or two occasions, the Caribbeans never regained their strength. In the past 23 years, the West Indies has never won a test match against India.
The plight of West Indies was once again resurfaced when it lost yet another Test cricket series against India losing both the two Test matches meekly. West Indies have now lost six consecutive Tests against India in India between 2013 and 2025.
The West Indies was also not part of the 2023 ODI World Cup for the first time in the history of the tournament after being eliminated from the Qualifiers. Coming into the do-or-die Super Six contest, West Indies suffered an embarrassing seven-wicket defeat against Scotland after managing a modest 181 in 43.5 overs. The result eliminated West Indies from the tournament.
After the golden Clive Llyod era where Windies dominated the game for more than a decade that began with winning the first World Cup in 1975 followed by another in 1979, the cricket in the Caribbean nations started declining reducing the team to virtual minnows.
Thank God, the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt picked running over cricket. Who knew what would have been his fate, had he become a cricketer? He must remain thankful to his father for guiding him to run on the track instead of pursuing his first love cricket where Sachin Tendulkar was his hero.
Experts said West Indian cricket declined, largely owing to the failure of the West Indian Cricket Board to move the game from an amateur pastime to a professional sport, coupled with the general economic decline in West Indian countries, and the team struggling to retain its past glory.
“There is an absence of quality players in the West Indies as more and more young players are opting for basketball, baseball and other sports which bring more money,” said senior journalist Pallab Bhattacharya.
Victory in the 2004 Champions Trophy and a runner-up showing in the 2006 Champions Trophy left some hopeful, but it was not until the inception of Twenty20 cricket that the West Indies began to regain a place among the cricketing elite and among cricket fans, as they developed ranks of players capable of taking over games with their power hitting, including Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, DJ Bravo, Andre Russell and Carlos Brathwaite. They beat Australia and then host Sri Lanka in the 2012 World Twenty20 to win their first ICC world championship since the 1979 World Cup and then bested England to win the 2016 World Twenty20, making them the first team to win the World Twenty20 twice. As an added bonus, the West Indies also became the first to win both the men’s and women’s World Twenty20 on the same day, as the women’s team beat three-time defending champion Australia for their first ICC world title immediately beforehand. For the first time in the history of the tournament, the team did not qualify for the 2023 World Cup after losing to Scotland in the Super Six stage of the Qualifiers.
“Little domestic cricket is one big reason behind the decline of West Indies in recent years,” said Kirti Patil, a senior journalist. The craze for cricket is also on the decline, Patil said.
And now all focus is on cricket greats Viv Richards and Brian Lara who have been entrusted with an arduous task to revive the Caribbean cricket as it has not won any test series since the 2022-23 series against Zimbabwe. West Indies was also in news for scoring just 27 runs in an innings against Australia which is the second lowest score in Test history.
But despite the despondency, there is still hope. Cricket West Indies has identified about a hundred things that need improvement including inculcating a sense of pride among young players, raising the standard of domestic tournaments, and bringing in more money. The West Indies Cricket Board is serious in this regard.