Oral Tracey | Nothing to celebrate

The embarrassment is real in having to live through the indignity of witnessing the once mighty Windies participate in the ICC World Cup qualifying play-offs against minnows such as Papua New Guinea, The United Arab Emirates, Ireland, et cetera, basically scrambling for the crumbs in a desperate bid to merely qualify for the World Cup. By the look of things, they should sneak in through the back door and get to the big dance in England and Wales next year.

The mere sight, though, of the two-time World Cup champions (1975 and 1979) and losing finalists in a massive upset in 1983 in a dogfight with these associate nations is quite sickening to the stomach. Even in appreciating and understanding the convergence of circumstances that culminated in the Windies failing to maintain a top-eight rank, which would mean automatic qualification for the World Cup, it makes it no less unpalatable to see the Caribbean team in these qualifiers.

Even if Jason Holder and his men go on to win this tournament and qualify, there ought not to be anything to celebrate, because they should never have been in this tussle in the first place. They are not there yet, but they should make it, fingers crossed. However, based on their record and the level of cricket they have been playing in this format generally, and even in this tournament against what is supposed to be significantly inferior opposition, it is safe to say that the Windies will not be even remotely competitive at the World Cup proper. They are now ranked at number nine in 50-over cricket, and thus, involved in these qualifiers by fluke or accident. This is a very poor One Day International (ODI) cricket team.

The batting is consistently inconsistent, and the bowling lacks the penetration and the general quality to keep the team competitive against the elite teams in world cricket. Making matters even worse is that some of the best players in the region have ceased being interested in or focused on this format of cricket. Some of the most senior campaigners - the likes of the Bravo brothers, Dwayne and Darren, as well as mystery spinner Sunil Narine, all potential difference-makers - are not in the team, and this is an index of this wider attitudinal shift by the general elite player pool in the region.

It is obviously not the easiest problem to solve. ODI cricket actually only takes on significant relevance in the region when the World Cup comes around, which partially explains the current predicament. There is one school of thought that if the Windies do qualify for the World Cup, it might give a false sense of competence and belonging while the underlying problems continue to eat away at the core of what used to be such a great and successful institution.

PRESENT DANGER

The much clearer and more present danger seems to be the team qualifying for the World Cup only to get seriously embarrassed by the elite teams. Shameless, inexplicable displays have been the trend in this format in recent years. There is no indication that anything will change significantly when the Windies come face-to-face with the likes of India, Australia, South Africa, England, and even New Zealand, who are all light years ahead of the Windies in ODI cricket.

Those high-quality and explosive batting line-ups will make minc meat of the mediocre bowling attack, and the frailty and inconsistency of the batting will be conspicuously exposed on this massive stage. For far too long, the suffering fans of West Indies cricket have been relegated to the status of eternal optimists. The writing has been clearly on the wall, and some brave honesty is required to accept that even if they do qualify for this World Cup, they will struggle, and they will struggle badly. Therefore, after the initial sigh of relief of them actually qualifying (still fingers crossed), we should then brace ourselves for another revolving round of embarrassment.