WEST INDIES

West Indies Cricket team consists of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States Virgin Islands. They have won the ODI World Cup twice: in 1975 and 1979. The team won the T20 World Cup in 2012 and 2016 while Champions Trophy in 2004.

History of West Indies

The West Indies cricket team’s history dates back to the 1890s. The first representative teams were chosen to compete against visiting English teams. The WICB joined the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1926. Moreover, In 1928, they participated in their first official international match. Thereafter, they were given Test status. They became the fourth test playing nation.   The team initially represented British Guiana along with the British territories. However, they would later come together to establish the West Indies Federation in the 1930s.

The West Indies under Clive Lloyd had a team that was acknowledged as the unofficial world champions by the late 1970s. They kept that title throughout the 1980s.  The West Indies were renowned for their four-man fast bowling attack throughout their heydays. They backed up with some of the best batting in the world. Fast bowler Michael Holding set a record for the best bowling stats by a West Indian bowler in a Test. He took 14/149 in the Oval Test against England in 1976. This record still stands today. In the 1980s, the team defeated England twice by scores of 5-0. Thus, they set a then-record sequence of 11 straight Test victories in 1984.

However, West Indian cricket suffered throughout the 1990s and 2000s. This was largely because of the failure of  West Indian Cricket Board. They could not turn sport from an amateur pastime to a professional sport. Moreover, the general economic downturn in West Indian countries added more misery. Thus the team struggle to cling to its former glory. Winning in the 2004 Champions Trophy and a runner-up result in the 2006 Champions Trophy left some hopeful. But they could dominate the longer formats i.e. ODIs and Tests.

T20 Super Power

They built teams of players, like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, DJ Bravo, Andre Russell, and Carlos Brathwaite. These players could dominate games with their power hitting. They defeated England to win the 2016 World Twenty20, becoming the first side to win the World Twenty20 . In the 2012 World Twenty20, they defeated Australia and Sri Lanka in semifinal and final respectively. They earned their first ICC world title since the 1979 World Cup. The West Indies also made history that year. They became the first team to win both the men’s and women’s World Twenty20 tournaments on the same day. The women’s team had just defeated three-time defending champion Australia. With that win, it was their first ICC world championship.



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