Even in decline, West Indies remain a tough nut to crack on home soil

Caribbean cricket has bottomed out. West Indies were the world Test champions until 1995, when the decline was steep as with most expiring empires. But, after a sequence of civil wars, West Indian cricket is heading in the right direction, even if their board still succeeds in alienating most of those great cricketers who made West Indies world champions.

Cricket’s shortest format has become the West Indian speciality. Want a 20 year-old batsman to blast 50 off 20 balls for your new franchise? Head straight to the Caribbean - or else Afghanistan, whose players have a similar physicality. The global T20 circuit is the way to make big bucks now, whereas the young West Indian of a generation ago aimed for a league or county contract in England. So the sport has been transformed, with the Caribbean Premier League one of the most established T20 tournaments (which the likes of New Zealand, South Africa and Sri Lanka cannot claim to possess); it is definitely not dying.
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