ALREADY ELIMINATED from the ICC Champions Trophy in 2017, the West Indies have less than two years to ensure they don’t endure the same humiliation for the 2019 World Cup from May 31-July 15 in England.
The countdown starts with the first of the three ODIs against Sri Lanka in Colombo today. It ends on September 30, 2017 after which a complicated system determines the seven teams, along with England, to go straight into the World Cup. The bottom two would end up in a qualifying tournament in Bangladesh in 2018, along with highest ranked associates and affiliates.
The method was created by the ICC’s ill-advised and widely criticised reduction of the number of participants from 14 in 2011 and 2015 to ten. Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and the UAE, four affiliates, were in Australia and New Zealand for the Cup earlier this year; now only two would make it through or, indeed, none at all if they are beaten by the two full member opponents.
At present, the West Indies are eighth in the relevant rankings, level on 88 points with Pakistan. If they drop to ninth by the cut-off date, they would be off to Bangladesh in 2018 to battle for one of the two remaining places.
In the upcoming series, Sri Lanka, currently ranked fifth at 103 points, can gain a maximum of two points. The most the West Indies can is five points but they would have to win all three matches. It’s a baffling system that carries the ICC stamp.  Â
Given the vagaries of the 50-overs game, their own inconsistency, the enticement of the IPL and other franchises to the best players and an administration prone to wreck even the most favourable position, it is not overly pessimistic to predict nervous times should they find themselves in Bangladesh battling against the stronger highly motivated associates, Ireland for instance.
The Champions Trophy let-down came as a bolt from the blue. In the end, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) was fishing around for matches in an effort to earn the necessary points to keep them in. Pakistan backraised them by opting out of a tri-series in Zimbabwe.
The straightforward certainty was that the West Indies were not properly prepared. The two domestic Nagico Super50 seasons to date have been little more than afterthoughts. They have comprised the six traditional WICB members along with two invited teams, divided into two zones and contested in one territory (Trinidad and Tobago) in largely unsatisfactory conditions.
Two of the matches were abandoned last year when all-out scores of 85, 97, 115, 114 and, in the showpiece final, 65 by Guyana against Trinidad and Tobago. This is at a time when totals Âof over 300 have become commonplace and 400 increasingly reachable at international level.
St Kitts has been added as a second venue this season; otherwise it’s still eight teams in two zones.
The last West Indies ODI prior to the Sri Lanka series was the quarter-final of the World Cup against New Zealand on March 21. There was not a single match, international or domestic, in the intervening seven and a half months.
The young players now identified by chief selector Clive Lloyd as the future for the West Indies cannot master the unique demands of the short format game with such limited opportunities.
Over the coming two years, the West Indies encounter daunting opposition in 21 ODIs listed by the ICC, among them five against India (No.2 in the rankings) that suddenly appear for 2017.
They start with a tri-series involving Australia (No.1 in the rankings) and South Africa (No.3) in the Caribbean March 16-April 3, take on Pakistan in five in the UAE next October and November, followed by the five against India and three against England at home within a few months.
There are several provisos before the West Indies can lift themselves up the ODI rankings and avoid a trip to Bangladesh in 2017.
Once the domestic tournament is properly organised and stronger, the best limited-overs cricketers are chosen without interference or favour and the constant mistrust between board and players can somehow be eliminated, the West Indies can be competitive, even against the best.
They are more versed in the shorter, rather than longer, formats, even though the limited evidence of their solitary warm-up ODI against the Sri Lanka President’s XI mirrored their shortcomings in the Tests. The glaring weakness of the batting and the benefit of power-hitting all-rounders were prominent.
At 109 for seven, yet another embarrassment loomed. Carlos Brathwaite, a big unit capable of destroying any bowling on his day, and Andre Russell, whose explosive capacity has made him among the many West Indians sought after by global franchises, responded with boundary-studded belligerence that undermined the Sri Lankans – Brathwaite 113 off 58 balls, Russell 89 off 54 in a partnership of 193.
It won’t happen every time, of course, but it set an example to be followed.  Â
Tony Cozier is the most experienced cricket writer and broadcaster in the Caribbean.
