This week, Brian Lara questioned whether the current Test team "really want to play for the West Indies". Aadya Sharma looks at how pride and passion shaped West Indies Cricket, and where it is right now.
There is no simple answer to the West Indies problem. It’s entangled in layers, deep-set, needing a systemic reboot that might be years away. The old lament about facilities and money keeps swirling around every few months. In different forms, through different voices.
Yes, more money equals fewer problems.
But is West Indies’ mediocrity in Tests solely a financial issue?
West Indies at its peak: Driven by unity and pride
When Brian Lara, arguably their last global Test icon, first walked out wearing the West Indies emblem in 1990, they were still cricket’s dominant force. An unbeaten Test series streak continued for another half a decade, before Australia culled it and sparked a power shift.
Lara endured difficult times as a player, and watches more of it after retirement, but the pride for West Indies cricket “still lives on” in him.
“My greatest achievement is to follow in the footsteps of some of the greats that have played the game,” he says at the sidelines of the CEAT Cricket Awards this week.
Lara mentioned his heroes: Roy Fredericks, Viv Richards, Gordon Greenidge. But those weren’t just cricketing heroes. The Sixties, the decade Lara was born, saw the collapse of the Federation and the independence of Caribbean nations, changing the very fabric of cricket in the region. When Frank Worrell became their first Black captain in 1960, a gargantuan shift came about.
Cricket would go on to be the unifying force for them, galvanised further by the changing landscape of the world itself. The Black Power Movement in the US gained force around the same time.
“We had been born in colonial times. We grew up in independent times,” Colin Croft, the former West Indies quick, once said. “Come the Seventies, ‘We started thinking like West Indians and not like Englishmen who were living in the West Indies.’”
CLR James’ Beyond A Boundary summarises it here: “The class and racial rivalries were too intense. They could be fought out without violence or much lost except pride and honour. Thus, the cricket field was a stage on which selected individuals played representative roles which were charged with social significance.”
For Viv Richards, his bat was his "sword" at that time. “That was the time when I think the heat was on for you to start getting up and standing up because of some of the things you felt were happening worldwide," is how he described the Seventies.
The West Indies badge continues to be respected, and playing international cricket is an honour, but the a unified “higher meaning” doesn’t exist in the same sense anymore.
And that’s why for players from Lara’s generation, “pride” and “passion” have real value.
“I don’t see the fire. I don’t see guys who are willing to dive for the burgundy,” Lara says, when addressing the current state of West Indies cricket.
Lara spoke days after yet another abject surrender in Ahmedabad, with Roston Chase pointing at the obstacles back home.
“The training and facilities are poor,” Chase said. “I am not using that as an excuse or something to hide behind for poor performances that we’ve been putting out lately. I still think that the onus is on the players to find some way to churn up runs and wickets and stuff.”
But Lara questions if Chase and his team have the fire burning in them like it should.
Lara to Chase & co: ‘Do you have cricket at heart?’
“I would like to urge Roston Chase and the other guys: do they have cricket at heart? Do they really want to play for the West Indies? And that's the most important thing, because you would find a way.
“We didn't have better facilities 30-40 years ago”.
Now, it might come across as an “in our time” rant. The sport has progressed at breakneck speed since, the training is a lot more nuanced and analytical. West Indies lag behind in technology and resources. It hasn’t helped that the T20 boom has promised to take their best talent away.
Nicholas Pooran is a recent example, if not an accurate one. He retired at 29. He has played for at least 17 different teams across major global T20 leagues. Pooran never played Tests, and just a handful of first-class games. As a fine T20 player, he took the more viable, logical path for himself. Head coach Daren Sammy wasn’t surprised, admitting it was “out of their control”.
"I'm pretty sure more will follow in that mood, in that direction," Sammy said after Pooran departed. "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.”
“It is a very big problem,” Lara says about the talent drain. “Get it very clear: I can't blame any single player for wanting to pursue cricket as a career outside the West Indies, because the disparity in what's happening: playing five or six franchise leagues compared to playing for the West Indies is different.
“You have to have empathy with that player but you also have to feel that, what can we do at home to make sure that players, or future players, understand that playing for the West Indies is also very important."
In the last five years, there’s been a crop of new top-flight T20 leagues, drawing out players and forcing them to contemplate a West Indies future.
“The IPL has carved out a period of time which is exclusive to it,” says Lara. “But there are six or seven different leagues popping up around the world, and everybody's wanting to do it. So I think the onus is on West Indies cricket to find a way to create and unify the efforts of the young players who want to go out but also have them playing for us.”
That said, it’s Test cricket where the issues lay the deepest, and that’s where West Indies need their best talent at hand. Sammy feels that, in the last decade, younger players are more drawn towards the T20 format because that’s where their newest “heroes” have come from.
West Indies in Tests v the rest: Not a level-playing field
But their T20 success has had no bearing on the continued decline in Tests. Since 2020, the West Indies have the third-lowest win/loss ratio among all 12 teams. In the 2010s, it was the fourth-lowest. In the 2000s, the third-lowest. For at least a quarter of a century now, West Indies have been a sub-par Test team, capable of pulling together big moments, but those are far and few amid their lows.
“In a series against India: we want to play good cricket against the best team in the world. You want your best players out there,” Lara says. “You don't want your best players in America or somewhere else around the world.
“It is something that India does not suffer with, because your players play here. Everybody comes to play here. England, Australia: I think they survive on the fact that they have big retainers for their players. They need to go out and play cricket and run around the place isn't there?
“If you look at Argentina: [Lionel] Messi grew up in Europe, but he plays for Argentina, but he played for Barcelona, PSG, and he was allowed: there's a lot more South American footballers that do that and eventually go back and play for their country and have the pride to do so.”
For years, Cricket West Indies operated on an annual financial deficit: with T20 World Cup hosting rights in 2024 being a big win, a part of it has reversed in the last two years.
But that will take time to trickle to the grassroots, to make significant infrastructural changes, some of which Chase highlighted after their Ahmedabad loss.
“The pitches in the Caribbean are not really batsman-friendly. So guys don’t really bat for long periods and score those big scores,” he said.
“And the outfields in the Caribbean are really slow. When you hit the ball in the gaps, you probably end up struggling to get two. Those are just some of the problems that we are faced with in the Caribbean.”
Batting is by far West Indies’ biggest worry, and it’s a department that suffers the most without proper infrastructure. Fast bowlers can still rise from small corners with their raw potential. Batting needs to be a far more systematic progression.
The lack of quality batters at the top-level has been a real setback. Unsurprisingly, from the start of 2020, the West Indies’ collective batting average stands at 23.14, the lowest among all 12 Test-playing nations.
Lara acknowledges all of the issues. He was part of the emergency meeting after their 27 all out against Australia, admitting they weren’t at a level-playing field with others, falling behind on the technical and analytical front.
“We can’t stay away and say we’re going to rely on our natural ability and Sir Viv Richards is going to come around the corner next week. That's not just going to happen. Even if that happened, the business still has to understand how deep the game has gone. And for me, technology is a part of it”.
Can players ‘find a way’ through sheer will?
But he also circles back to how, even in the past, West Indies players were driven by a passion that wasn’t held back by circumstances or resources.
“Back to 50-60 years ago, volunteerism was a big thing. You can get things done. You can get coaches. I was coached at Harvard Coaching Clinic where nobody was paid.
“If you want to get things done, you have to have the capital to do it. That is a major part.”
“We didn’t have better facilities 30-40 years ago. Viv Richards didn’t bat in better practice pitches or anything. We had to do the same thing, the same grind. But I think the passion was different. The passion to play for the West Indies was different.
“So I urge the young players to realise that this is a wonderful opportunity. And I'm almost sure that every single one of their parents would have had in the back of them.”
Ahead of the second India Test, Sammy also iterated that the lack of resources should never be an excuse to work harder.
"I always tell these guys [is], if we complain about not having the best facilities, not having enough manpower like the other teams, not having the best technology, all these things [in] which the other teams are superior to us, then why the hell are they still outworking us?
“The only way we could match up, compete at a consistent level is if we as the coaches and the players are prepared to outwork the opposition, and we're not doing that.
"You don't need talent to work hard. You don't need talent to be motivated. It's not a skill. The skill you need is to go and play. But the mindset. That's what it takes. And I'm trying to continue to instil that in the guys.”
Sammy sees the message going through slowly to the current lot. Lara extends the plea to the next crop of Test players.
“Think of what your dad would want,” Lara says. “Because these 20 year-olds, they would have their dads in their 40s and 50s and 60s, who would relish the opportunity to play for the Windies. The history and heritage of the West Indies should be uppermost.”
“I know today’s game is different. The commercial side is different, but at the end when you put that bat in your hand, (we) always wanted to play for Guyana, or Barbados or Trinidad, and eventually West Indies.
“That should still be the No.1 priority.”
For a problem this complex, no single entity can cause a fix. But, Lara believes that the players need to “find a way” to bring back the same pride in playing for the West Indies. Hopefully, it flicks a switch somewhere to work for a collective goal once again.
“We are going to try our best to create the finances possible to get up there. I still believe that the West Indies have some of the best natural talent. But that natural talent needs to be taken to the next level”.
“Hopefully, we will get things right”.
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
