(ESPN) West Indies cricket achieved redemption this decade after staring down the barrel in the first ten years of the 21st century. A highly bitter and toxic relationship with the cricket administration, which has been that way for over two decades, might have forced many Caribbean players to pick playing in various T20 leagues rather than for the region, but those very men came together to help West Indies become the only team to win the T20 world title twice.
Strangely then, West Indies will finish the decade ranked No. 10 in T20Is. In ODIs they are ninth, and in Tests seventh; and it was in Tests that West Indies achieved significant progress in the 2010s: against England at home, they drew 1-1 in 2015 and beat them 2-1 in 2018-19. They won a thrilling Test at Headingley in 2017, and beat Pakistan in a Test in the UAE in 2016-17.
Caribbean fans can hope for a bright future. They have multiple match-winners now: batsmen Shai Hope and Kraigg Brathwaite, and captain Jason Holder, who has grown into an able leader and will finish as one of the decade’s best Test allrounders.
West Indies’ T20I XI of the decade
Chris Gayle
Lendl Simmons
Marlon Samuels
Shimron Hetmyer
Nicholas Pooran (wk)
Kieron Pollard
Andre Russell
Dwayne Bravo
Darren Sammy (c)
Sunil Narine
Samuel Badree
The challenge now for West Indies is to attain stability.
High point
The first one was in 2012, when Marlon Samuels’ masterful innings led West Indies to the World T20 title against hosts Sri Lanka. Four years later, on a humid evening at Eden Gardens, Samuels danced bare-chested while the usually mellow Ian Bishop bellowed emotionally on air after Carlos Brathwaite hit four consecutive sixes in the final over to win the title for a second time.
Low point
The two-time T20 World Cup winners faced the embarrassment of being forced to play the 50-over Qualifiers to earn the right to participate in the 2019 World Cup. It proved they had barely improved in the format since the 2015 World Cup, where they had been defeated by Ireland. But the biggest embarrassment was the walkout by Dwayne Bravo’s team mid-way into the 2014 tour of India after a spiteful dispute between the players and the West Indies cricket administration of Dave Cameron.
Results
Tests: P83, W22, L43, D18
ODIs: P196, W69, L114, T5, NR8
T20Is: P101, W43, L53, T1, NR4