Domestic disorder costing West Indies on ODI front

Problems are never far away in West Indies cricket; they have come in profusion for two decades now. The latest is the real possibility of failure to qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy in England, and the fallout that could follow.

As tenuous as it has become and as demeaning as it is for a team that that once utterly dominated the international game, West Indies value their status among the top eight international teams more than ever. To be absent in England two years hence would further damage the already diminishing interest of players and public, both now under the spell of T20.

West Indies have participated in all seven previous tournaments. They werevictors over England in the final at The Oval in 2004; runners-up to South Africa in Dhaka in the first, in 1998; and to Australia in Mumbai in 2006. Only a quirk of the Duckworth-Lewis system that deemed their rain-reduced match against South Africa in Cardiff in 2013 a tie, with a resulting reduction in their net run rate, prevented them from advancing to the semi-final that year.

For all that, they remain teetering on the brink, rated No. 8 in ODIs, as they are in Tests. Repercussions from the events in India last October, when players, once more disgruntled by the board, prematurely quit their scheduled tour, and subsequent defeats in South Africa and the World Cup, kept them there.

They have had no ODIs in the interim, no chance to clamber back onto firmer ground. There is not even a domestic 50-overs tournament before their next international engagement, a three-way series in Zimbabwe in late August, when their matches against Pakistan, their erratic equivalent, will settle the last remaining Champions Trophy place.

Both teams had 88 points prior to Pakistan's ongoing series of five ODIs in Sri Lanka, presently level after two matches. Should Pakistan prevail in the remaining three, they will move to 92 points, a four-point cushion going into the Zimbabwe showdown; defeat in the three would have the identical negative effect, leaving them four points behind West Indies.

In other words, Zimbabwe hold the key for two teams that have both featured in every previous Champions Trophy. West Indies' massive victory over Pakistan the last time they met, in the World Cup in February, would be held to be a significant psychological advantage, but it is eliminated by the likely unavailability of five of the XI in that match - Chris Gayle, Dwayne Smith, Lendl Simmons, Darren Sammy and Andre Russell; their replacements would lack such immense international experience.

The dilemma West Indies and Pakistan now face was sprung on them by a succession of unexpected triumphs by a suddenly invigorated Bangladesh in their favourable home conditions over the past four months. They trounced Pakistan 3-0, and for the first time in their history, prevailed over India and South Africa 2-1. The sequence propelled them to 96 points, far enough ahead of the other two to guarantee them a place among the ODI top eight come September 30, the decisive cut-off date.

All versions of the game in the Caribbean have been destabilised by a host of self-inflicted troubles, principally the strained relations between the players and the board, and hopelessly haphazard planning. The latter is more specific to the regional 50-overs tournament.

The first, for the Gillette Cup, was staged in 1975-76. The six regional teams were split into two zones, leading to a final; three of the scheduled seven matches were rained out. It was clearly unsatisfactory.

Only three times in the intervening 39 years, in 1982 and 2005-06 and 2006-07, has it been organised on a proper, round-robin basis, with the traditional teams (Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Trinidad & Tobago, Windward Islands) playing each other for a minimum of five qualifying matches each, leading into the final in 1982 and, in 2006 and 2007, semis and a final. Otherwise, the board has stuck to the mainly meaningless group arrangement.

It also increased the teams in each group, if hardly the standard, by adding the University of the West Indies (later Combined Campuses and Colleges) and, from time to time, Canada, Bermuda, the USA, Kenya, the West Indies Under-19s and its High Performance Centre team. Twice the champions of the Windwards and Leewards (St Vincent and Antigua) played separately from their combined teams. For the 2016 edition, a combined ICC Americas team is to be one of the eight.

Director of cricket Richard Pybus recommended in his comprehensive report to the WICB 16 months ago that the "domestic competition format be double-round four-day cricket and double-round one-day cricket, to give the players the opportunity to learn formats, build up experience and produce levels of performance that will allow them to achieve levels of excellence that warrant selection to the West Indies team". Each would be restricted to the six territorial teams to pit "strength against strength" for better player evaluation.

It led to an extension of the 2014-15 first-class season for the new, franchised Professional Cricket League (PCL) from one round to two, with the number of teams restricted to the six originals. It gave each team ten matches rather than five; the status quo remained for the 50-overs tournament.

Along the way, there have been six different sponsors. As the Red Stripe Cup, the semi-finals and finals were staged in Jamaica, home of the beer that bore its name; in 2014, the board signed a three-year agreement with an insurance company, and received financial support from the government, to locate all Nagico Super50 matches exclusively in Trinidad & Tobago. There has been no consistency, no continuity. The 50-overs game appears to be an afterthought.

Where it stands in the scheme of things was evident at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in February and March; West Indies were the only team without an appointed head coach. It left a new, young captain to deal on his own with key senior players seething over the omission of the perceived leaders of the Indian tour pull-out.

The cumulative effects of such disorganisation and disorder have inevitably led to the present predicament.