Why West Indies cricket fell: economics of the decline

The West Indies cricket team is made up of players from many small islands in the Caribbean Sea.

A long time ago, in the 1970s and 1980s, they were the best team in the world, winning the first two Cricket World Cups.

Today, the team has to play extra qualifying games just to try to get into the World Cup.

One big reason is money: because the Caribbean is not one big country, less money comes into cricket than in places like India, England and Australia.

Another reason is new short T20 leagues like the IPL, where players can earn a lot of money in a short time.

Many players now pick these leagues instead of long national tours, so the national team loses some of its best players.

Famous stars of the past, like Vivian Richards, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Brian Lara and Clive Lloyd, were not replaced by enough new talent.

The West Indies are still excellent at T20 cricket and won the T20 World Cup in 2012 and 2016.

But Test and ODI cricket need a whole deep team, not just a few individual stars.

The article says the answer is to build a stronger cricket system and economy, not just find new superstar players.