The beginning of the end of West Indies cricket

July 14, 2025, was a day of bittersweet emotions if you are an avid Test cricket enthusiast.

While India and England played out one of the most nail-biting Tests in recent memory at one end, which left one and all waxing lyrical about the rich legacy of a format that refuses to die, on the other side of the world the West Indies were being dismantled piece by piece by Australia in one of the most lopsided showings in recent times.

As Ben Stokes and Ravindra Jadeja waged a battle that could easily be the modern-day rendition of a gladiator match, Windies rookie Kevlon Anderson embarrassed himself by offering no shot to a gun-barrel-straight delivery and then proceeding to take a review.

The meek and impotent Caribbean capitulation saw the entire side skittled out for 27, which felt like a death knell that could more or less signal the beginning of the end for West Indies cricket.

The very fact that we are talking about the obituary of a region that boasts arguably one of — if not the richest — cultures across the cricketing fraternity speaks volumes about how far the standard of cricket has fallen in the Caribbean. And yet, it could have been worse.

At 11/6, chasing what was a difficult but not improbable score of 204, the Windies were on the verge of entering the history books for all the wrong reasons. From winning back-to-back World Cups, they were now staring at the prospect of being dismissed for the lowest Test score in history.

However, thanks to Sam Konstas, who has been having his own personal rendition of “heaven to hell” on the tour, the Men in Maroon managed to avoid the dreaded 26-run mark. However, being all out for 27 is no sweet feat either.

The slow, gradual, and painful decline of the West Indies as a cricketing powerhouse is a very sorrowful sight for anyone who has genuine love for the game. This team, who cannot buy a Test win right now, once did not lose a single Test in their golden era of unparalleled dominance between 1980 and 1995.

But how has it come to this? How have a team with such a rich cricketing heritage come to be sad has-beens, fighting for scraps on the periphery of cricketing relevance?

The answer is very simple: money.

Money is the reason why the state of West Indies cricket is in the doldrums. At a time when the current cricketing superpower, India, raked in a handsome and staggering profit of US$1.18 billion for the 2023/24 period, the Windies were able to record profits of just a paltry sum of US$88.4 million. This very lack of financial ability is why the majority of players in the Caribbean opt to become freelance mercenaries, plying their trade in franchise leagues across the globe.

Barbados-born Jofra Archer comes across as the biggest example of this current malaise. Archer could so easily have been the pace spearhead of this West Indian side, yet there he was at Lord’s, in England colours, steaming in viciously to send Rishabh Pant’s stumps for a walk, while players representing his country of birth were being sent on a trip of humiliation.

The recent retirements of Nicholas Pooran — their highest run-getter in white-ball cricket — and Andre Russell only strengthen the argument that money is a major motivating factor for the smooth operation of any national cricketing outfit.

Even legends like Sir Vivian Richards and Sir Clive Lloyd, pioneers of the golden age of Caribbean cricket, and Brian Lara, arguably the finest Windies batter of the modern era, can only do so much to stop the rot in the WI cricketing landscape if there is no money on offer.

It is very ironic that Kingston’s Sabina Park, which has been witness to some of the most memorable, breathtaking, and dominating scenes of West Indies cricket in its pomp, is now the site of their lowest point in what has been a slow descent into irrelevance.

The West Indies, the mighty West Indies, who once boasted the “four horsemen” of death for opposition batters across the world, are now staring at the doom of their very cricketing existence. And that is a sad sight for cricket lovers worldwide.