Lament West Indies’ decline, but don’t forget to cheer Netherlands’ rise

They were the all-conquering heroes in the 1980s, beating the predominant England and Australia Test sides a whopping 28 times while losing just thrice. In a sense, they were not just cricketers but a band of revolutionaries who ended the hegemony of whites in the sport, at least on the field.

They showed how race discrimination had no basis and non-whites could be good at sport, or anything for that matter. And they did that in their own style, adding the Caribbean flair to cricket’s limited palette. It was entertaining, effective, brave, and refreshing at the same time.

When the International Cricket Conference, which was later rechristened as the International Cricket Council, launched its first limitedovers World Cup in 1975, West Indies won it without losing a game. They repeated the same kind of total dominance four years later to win the second World Cup on the trot.

It is this West Indies that people remember when they lament the reality of a World Cup without the winners of the first two editions. Not the one that failed to reach an ODI World Cup final since 1983 and semi-finals since 1996.

In the World Cup Qualifiers (WCQs), they weren’t even close to finishing in the top two. If it weren’t The Netherlands, it would have been Scotland or Zimbabwe. While it is all right to lament the decline of the West Indies, once a great team, it should not stop us from celebrating the rise of The Netherlands, so-called minnows, also known as Associate Members (AMs), through the ranks and earn the right to play in the World Cup. The Netherlands’ journey to the 2023 World Cup in India is remarkable, and probably worthy of a mini-documentary. When they reached Zimbabwe for the WCQs, several English County Championship teams refused to release their Dutch recruits, depriving them of fielding a full-strength team. To make it worse, they lost their first group match itself, against Zimbabwe. After a couple of wins, they came across the West Indies, who posted a mammoth total of 374. Another loss could have put them in an impossible situation. The Netherlands equalled that score before Logan van Beek smashed a world record 30 runs in the one-over eliminator to pocket the crucial points. In their final Super Six league game against another strong World Cup spot contenders, Scotland, they needed to win inside 44 overs for a better net run rate than their closest rivals. Chasing 278, they were 163/5 in 30.5 overs.

This time Bas de Leede put on the hero’s cape and smashed 123 to take the Dutch to the World Cup. Voila! Even though it has come at the cost of a legacy team like the West Indies, it is a sign of cricket’s expansion and growing competitiveness as more AMs are challenging the established sides. Afghanistan were the minnows once. Now-a-days they get direct qualification for the World Cups by virtue of higher ranking.

Zimbabwe, like the West Indies, were also World Cup regulars once. Now, they struggle to qualify. Sri Lanka, though they have yet to miss any World Cup, no longer qualify directly. And it is not a bad thing. It tells us there is a real competition for the World Cup slots. It has pushed the ICC to increase the number of teams in the ODI World Cup from 10 in 2023 to 14 in 2027 onwards. The number of spots to be filled through Qualifiers would also increase from two to four, providing hope to more teams.

The next edition of the T20 World Cup in 2024 will see 20 participants, four more than the previous one. When four-time champions Italy failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2018, and then in 2022 again, it did not affect the quality of the competition. Rather, it was enriched by the teams who rarely get to play in front of the world and experience the environment of a global tournament. They also learn where they stand and what is the standard that they need to achieve to be a regular at such events. They grow, sport grows.