West Indies Cricket is Still Here

This whitewash represented a very dark moment in Caribbean cricket, but it is always darkest before the dawn.

As I write this, in the aftermath of West Indies strong performance in the 2026 T20 World Cup, I feel many different emotions, but the main emotion is pride. The dark days of December 2024 felt a lifetime away as the West Indies came within one lucky break of qualifying for the semi-finals. 

They humiliated Scotland, Nepal, and Italy. They took England there. They ended Zimbabwe’s good vibes. Only a full-strength, fully-firing South Africa found a way to humble them. And while the West Indies fell to defeat against India in the next match, they more than redeemed themselves with their performance. 

Playing the defending champions on their home turf, they put up 195 and kept India fighting until the bitter end. It doesn’t seem possible that a team that lost 3-0 at home to Bangladesh, a team featuring Nicholas Pooran and Alzarri Joseph, could put on such a show just two years later.

While the side that lit up this tournament didn’t feature Nicholas Pooran or Alzarri Joseph, the squads were comparable, with Gudakesh Motie, Rovman Powell, Roston Chase, and Romario Shepherd all featuring in both. On this stage, however, Caribbean cricket did something.

These men, they played with a passion and purpose that has been lacking for so long. Shimron Hetmyer played like the man he should have been had discipline and immaturity not stifled a potentially brilliant international career. Shai Hope struggled with the bat, but he led with his mind, both tactically and as a leader of men. There has been criticism of Daren Sammy, often valid, but somehow, he had these men performing greater than the sum of their parts.

West Indies cricket has been in decline for a generation. Generations, at this point. Fans of my age can hardly remember 2016, let alone 1980. There have been bright spots, of course, but in the despair of the pandemic, the West Indies seemed to wilt. In the aftermath, the men who led the magical run in 2016 were shadows of themselves, and that display of enfeeblement felt like Caribbean cricket’s reality was being paraded for all to see. 

A generation of West Indian T20 stars figured out the shortest format while the rest of the world was laughing at it, and that acted as a distraction from the collapse of their cricketing infrastructure back home. 

The generation that followed were too weak and too old to do the same. They had talent, but time had passed them by. These players were victims of the new world, victims of professionalisation and a broken system. Had some of them been born in England or Australia, they may have become household names, but they were forced to learn on the international stage what their opponents had learned in U15 cricket. 

That’s why the performance at the 2026 T20 World Cup was so special. The disadvantage these men had compared to their opponents cannot be overstated, yet they did not wilt. They did not flinch. They gave a performance that we should all remember. 

Instead of measuring these men by the standards of Chris Gayle, Bravo, and Badree, judge them by the standards of their time. 

West Indies cricket is still here, and it can still do things that make us proud.