From World Champions to World Cup qualifiers: The economics behind West Indies cricket’s fall

There was a time when playing the West Indies was as much a test of survival as it was a cricket match. Their fast bowlers dictated the terms, their batsmen played with authority and their opponents often arrived knowing they were facing a team that had spent years making winning look routine.

The West Indies won the first two men’s World Cups, in 1975 and 1979 and reached the final again in 1983. In Test cricket, their dominance stretched much further. From 1980 to 1995, they went 27 consecutive Test series without defeat, one of the defining runs in the history of the format.

The contrast with the present is stark. The West Indies have now missed out on direct qualification for the ODI World Cup 2027, meaning they will have to go through the qualifying route for a third successive World Cup cycle. They also missed the 2023 tournament altogether after losing to Scotland in the Super Six stage of the qualifiers.

That makes the qualification table more than a measure of sporting form. It is also a measure of how much the economics and structure of international cricket have changed around the Caribbean team.

The West Indies still produce players capable of becoming global stars. What has become harder is building a system that can consistently produce enough players, keep them together and prepare them for the demands of Test and ODI cricket.

The height of the peak

The scale of the decline is easier to understand when measured against what came before. The West Indies teams of the 1980s and early 1990s had an unusual combination of quality and depth. Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner, Colin Croft and Malcolm Marshall formed part of a fast-bowling tradition that became central to the team’s identity. Vivian Richards, Gordon Greenidge and Desmond Haynes provided a batting order with its own intimidating reputation.

The important point was not simply that these players were exceptional. There were enough of them. When one generation began to fade, another was available. The team had a competitive domestic and regional structure from which international players could emerge, and the national side itself had enough strength to sustain its standards.

That depth became increasingly difficult to reproduce. The problem eventually appeared across formats. Test cricket needed batsmen capable of surviving long spells against high-quality bowling. ODI cricket required players who could combine technique, fitness, tactical flexibility and consistency over an entire 50-over innings.

West Indies increasingly found themselves relying on individual performers rather than a deep, continuously replenished system. That distinction became critical once the economics of the game changed.

A small market carrying a global sport

Cricket West Indies faces a structural problem that India, England and Australia do not face in the same way. CWI is responsible for cricket across a collection of Caribbean countries and territories rather than one large national market.

That gives West Indies cricket a unique cultural identity, but it also limits the size of the commercial market from which the board can generate broadcast, sponsorship and ticketing income. CWI’s own accounts illustrate the volatility.

According to Cricket West Indies’ audited financial statements, in the 2024 financial year, total revenue reached about $88.4 million, helped substantially by the men’s T20 World Cup, which contributed about $39 million, or roughly 44% of annual revenue.

In the 2025 financial year, revenue fell to about $40.9 million, with ICC distributions, host management fees and participation fees dropping from $46.7 million to US$22.5 million and media-rights revenue declining from $15.0 million to $7.1 million, their total comprehensive loss in 2025 amounting to 28,531,921.

It shows show how dependent the economics of a smaller cricket market can be on the composition of its international calendar and major tournaments. For a modern cricket board, the costs are considerable- international travel, player contracts, medical support, analytics, coaching, academies, domestic competitions and grounds all require sustained investment.

A large commercial market gives wealthy boards more room to absorb those costs. A smaller market leaves less margin for error. And when investment in one generation is insufficient, the effects may not become visible until years later, when the next generation arrives without the same depth of preparation.

Then the franchise economy changed the player

The second major change came from the rise of T20 franchise cricket. The IPL, launched in 2008, created a new market for elite cricketers. It was followed by competitions such as the Caribbean Premier League, Big Bash League, Pakistan Super League, The Hundred and other franchise tournaments.

For Caribbean players, this was particularly significant. The region had already produced players whose skills were ideally suited to T20 cricket. Chris Gayle, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard became some of the most recognisable names in the global franchise game.

The financial model offered something that international cricket could not always provide: multiple income opportunities across the year. A player could sign short-term contracts in different leagues, earn from several markets and build a career around T20 cricket without making the national team the sole source of professional income.

That does not mean Caribbean players simply chose money over country. The reality is more complicated. International cricket demanded long tours, while Test cricket required the greatest physical and time commitment. Franchise cricket offered shorter competitions and, for established T20 specialists, a potentially more predictable commercial opportunity.

But the incentives had changed. The national team was no longer the only route to a successful cricket career.

The T20 paradox

This is what makes the West Indies story particularly unusual. The Caribbean cricket brand has remained highly valuable in T20 cricket. West Indies won the men’s T20 World Cup in 2012 and 2016, becoming the first team to win the tournament twice.

The qualities that made Caribbean cricket famous- power, athleticism, improvisation and aggressive fast bowling- translated naturally into the shortest format. T20 also allows a player to make an impact in a much smaller window. A batter can change a match with 20 balls. A bowler can influence a game with four overs.

Test cricket asks for something different. ODI cricket sits somewhere in between: players need the explosive skills of T20 but also the ability to build an innings, manage 50 overs and remain effective over a longer period. The result is a curious split.

The West Indies cricket system can still produce players who have significant value in the global T20 economy. That does not automatically translate into a strong Test or ODI team. The talent has not disappeared. The pathway through which that talent is converted into a national team has weakened.

“For someone who grew up watching the Caribbeans since the late seventies and eighties, the West Indians disintegrated over a period of time. The leadership crisis started once Clive Lloyd vacated the hot seat and the fearsome pace battery led by Roberts, Marshal, Holding, Ambrose and Walsh lost its impact. From a cricket point of view, the quality of batsmanship deteriorated over time,” senior sports journalist Soumitra Bose told financialexpress.com.

“Greenidge, Rowe, Haynes, Richardson, Richards, Lloyd, Gomes, Hooper et al knew how to build their innings. They had the temperament, strokes and skills to handle all kinds of bowling. Once those skill sets were dying, without enough runs on the board, the bowlers were finding it difficult to turn things around. Then there was T20 cricket. The financial crisis that kept afflicting the West Indies cricket board impacted the loyalty of Caribbean cricketers,” he added.

“White ball cricket was a big attraction for top cricketers who made big money with their skills that won close matches for franchises. Cricket lost its ‘purity’ in the West Indies. Superstars like Brian Lara were one in a million buy he was not a leader. Like the many islands of the West Indies, the team’s level of motivation to come together as a nation, disintegrated. The lure of money from big spending franchises in IPL was hugely responsible for the downfall of West Indian cricket,” he said.

The domestic pipeline matters

That brings the problem back to domestic cricket. A national team is ultimately built below the international level. Domestic cricket provides the repetition required to develop technique, exposes players to different conditions and gives selectors a pool from which to build depth.

The West Indies have struggled to maintain that pipeline at the level required to replace their earlier generations. Playing conditions are part of the discussion. The Caribbean pitches that once helped create a reputation for pace and bounce have not always offered young fast bowlers the same environment.

That matters because a player who spends his formative years in conditions that do not replicate international demands can face a steep adjustment when he travels to Australia, England or South Africa. The problem also becomes more expensive to fix as a player gets older.

A wealthy board can supplement domestic cricket with academies, specialist programmes, A-team tours and overseas exposure. A smaller board has fewer resources to build those additional layers.

The qualifier is the symptom

It is tempting to treat another World Cup qualifying campaign as the central problem. However, it could best be the qualifying problem is the most visible consequence of the decline.

In 2023, the West Indies entered the qualifier having already lost to Zimbabwe and the Netherlands in the group stage. Their subsequent seven-wicket defeat to Scotland ended their hopes of reaching the World Cup in India. The 2027 cycle has now produced a similar outcome at the qualification stage.

Every missed World Cup also carries a commercial cost. The World Cup is not just another series. It provides guaranteed exposure to a global audience, creates inventory for sponsors and gives players a platform on which their performances can build commercial value.

Missing the main tournament means fewer high-value fixtures and less international visibility. For a board already operating in a smaller commercial market, that can create a difficult cycle:

Weaker results reduce exposure; lower exposure makes commercial growth harder; weaker commercial growth limits investment; and limited investment makes rebuilding the team harder. That is the financial dimension of the West Indies’ decline.

The danger of becoming a T20-only brand

There is therefore a bigger question than whether West Indies qualify for the 2027 World Cup. Can the Caribbean continue to monetise its T20 talent while rebuilding the formats that require a much deeper domestic structure?

The franchise economy has created genuine opportunities for Caribbean players. It has also created a challenge for national boards everywhere: how do you keep players invested in international cricket when their professional value is no longer tied exclusively to the national team?

For West Indies, the challenge is particularly acute because its strongest commercial proposition today is also the format requiring the least continuity. T20 can survive on individual brilliance. Test and ODI cricket need a system.

Rebuilding the system, not just the team

The solution, therefore, is unlikely to be simply finding another Vivian Richards, Malcolm Marshall or Brian Lara. Generational players cannot be manufactured. Systems can be built.

For West Indies cricket, that means strengthening domestic competitions, improving playing surfaces, developing coaching and high-performance infrastructure, creating clearer pathways from schools and clubs to professional cricket and finding ways to make national contracts more competitive with the opportunities available in franchise cricket.

It also means accepting that the old model cannot simply be restored. The international calendar is more crowded than it was in the 1980s. T20 leagues have created an entirely new player economy. The Caribbean’s commercial market remains relatively small. And young cricketers now have more professional options than previous generations.

The West Indies once built a cricketing empire by having the deepest concentration of talent in the world. The challenge now is different. It is to build an economic and domestic system strong enough to keep that talent connected to the formats that made the West Indies a cricketing superpower in the first place.

The next World Cup qualifier will determine whether the team reaches the 2027 tournament. The bigger test is whether West Indies cricket can make sure it does not have to keep taking the long road back.