The West Indies cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a men's cricket team representing the West Indies—a group of mainly English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean region—and administered by Cricket West Indies (CWI). The players are selected from a chain of fifteen Caribbean nation-states and territories.
From the mid-late 1970s to the early 1990s, the West Indies team was the strongest in the world in both Test and One Day International (ODI) cricket. A number of cricketers who were considered among the best in the world have hailed from the West Indies: 21 have been inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.
The West Indies have won the ICC Cricket World Cup twice (1975 and 1979), the ICC T20 World Cup twice (2012 and 2016), the ICC Champions Trophy in 2004, and the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in 2016. They have also finished as runners-up in the Cricket World Cup (1983), the Under 19 Cricket World Cup (2004), and the ICC Champions Trophy (2006). The West Indies appeared in three consecutive World Cup finals (1975, 1979, and 1983) and were the first team to win back-to-back World Cups (1975 and 1979); both of these records have been surpassed only by Australia, who appeared in four consecutive World Cup Finals (1996, 1999, 2003, and 2007). The West Indies have hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 and co-hosted (with the United States) the 2024 ICC T20 World Cup.
, the West Indies cricket team is ranked eighth in Tests, tenth in ODIs, and seventh in Twenty20 Internationals (T20I) in the official ICC rankings.
Member states and dependencies The current team represents:
Sovereign states L
W W
L L W W
Constituent country of the L Overseas Territories of the L L L Territory of the L
Note
Affiliates in Cricket West Indies
Cricket West Indies, the governing body of the team, consists of the six cricket associations of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, the Leeward Islands, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Windward Islands. The Leeward Islands Cricket Association consists of three cricket associations from two sovereign states (one from Antigua and Barbuda, and two from Saint Kitts and Nevis), three British Overseas Territories (Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, and Montserrat), one U.S. territory (the U.S. Virgin Islands), and one Dutch constituent country (Sint Maarten). The Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control consists of associations of four sovereign states (Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines).
Two more British Overseas Territories in the region that have once been historical parts of the former West Indies Federation, the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands, have their own national teams currently.
National teams also exist for the various islands, which, as they are all separate countries, very much keep their local identities and support their local favourites. These national teams take part in the West Indian first-class competition, the Regional Four Day Competition (earlier known as the Busta Cup, Shell Shield, Carib Beer Cup, and various other names).For the results of domestic competitions see ESPN Cricinfo or The Home of CricketArchive It is also common for other international teams to play the island teams for warm-up games before they take on the combined West Indies team.
The combined population of these countries and territories is around 6 million people, comparable to fellow Full Members New Zealand and Ireland, and prominent Associate Member Scotland. Between 1928 and 2022 among the 385 men to play for West Indies, 67.8% hailed from either Barbados (98 players, 25.5%), Jamaica (83 players, 21.6%) or Trinidad and Tobago (83 players, 21.6%).
The member associations of Cricket West Indies are:
Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA); itself composed of: Anguilla Cricket Association Antigua and Barbuda Cricket Association British Virgin Islands Cricket Association Montserrat Cricket Association Nevis Cricket Association (for the island of Nevis alone) Saint Kitts Cricket Association (for the island of Saint Kitts alone) Sint Maarten Cricket Association United States Virgin Islands Cricket Association Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control (WICBC); itself composed of: Dominica Cricket Association Grenada Cricket Association Saint Lucia Cricket Association Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Cricket Association
Potential future members
Overseas collectivities of France L L Overseas regions of the French Republic L W Special municipalities of the Netherlands L L
History
The history of the West Indies cricket team began in the 1890s, when the first representative teams were selected to play visiting English teams. The WICB joined the sport's international ruling body, the Imperial Cricket Conference, in 1926,See CricketArchive , for example, for a reference to when Test status was acquired and played their first official international match, granted Test status, in 1928,See, for example, 75 Years of West Indies Cricket 1928–2003 by Ray Goble and Keith A. P. Sandiford , the WICB authorised reference book on cricket in the West Indies. For more information on the first Test played by the Windies, see West Indies Series: Test and ODI Tours . See also the scorecard of the First Test played by the West Indies. thus becoming the fourth Test 'nation'. In their early days in the 1930s, the team represented the British colonies that would later form the West Indies Federation plus British Guiana.
The last series the West Indies played before the outbreak of the Second World War was against England in 1939. There followed a hiatus that lasted until January 1948 when the MCC toured the West Indies. Of the West Indies players in that first match after the war only Gerry Gomez, George Headley, Jeffrey Stollmeyer, and Foffie Williams had previously played Test cricket. In 1948, leg spinner Wilfred Ferguson became the first West Indian bowler to take ten wickets in a Test, finishing with 11/229 in a match against England; later that same year Hines Johnson became the first West Indies fast bowler to achieve the feat, managing 10/96 against the same opponents.
The West Indies defeated England for the first time at Lord's on 29 June 1950. Ramadhin and Alf Valentine were the architects of the victory which inspired a calypso by Lord Beginner. Later on 16 August 1950, completed a 3–1 series win when they won at The Oval. Although blessed with some great players in their early days as a Test team, their successes remained sporadic until the 1960s when the team changed from a white-dominated to a black-dominated team under the successive captaincies of Frank Worrell and Gary Sobers.
The team won the inaugural World Cup in England in 1975, and successfully defended the title in 1979. By the late 1970s, the West Indies led by Clive Lloyd had a team recognised as unofficial world champions, a reputation they retained throughout the 1980s.Until June 2001 there was no official ranking of Test nations, with the unofficial epithet of "World champions" being decided by acclaim based on recent results. Although exactly when the West Indies became and ceased to be world champions is therefore disputed – that they were the unofficial world champions for a prolonged period of time is not. During these glory years, the West Indies were noted for their four-man fast bowling attack, backed up by some of the best batsmen in the world. In 1976, fast bowler Michael Holding took 14/149 in the OvalTest against England, setting a record which still stands for best bowling figures in a Test by a West Indies bowler. The 1980s saw the team set a then-record streak of 11 consecutive Test victories in 1984 and inflict two 5–0 "blackwashes" on England.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, however, West Indian cricket declined, largely owing to the failure of the West Indian Cricket Board to move the game from an amateur pastime to a professional sport, coupled with the general economic decline in West Indian countries, and the team struggling to retain its past glory. Victory in the 2004 Champions Trophy and a runner-up showing in the 2006 Champions Trophy left some hopeful, but it was not until the inception of Twenty20 cricket that the West Indies began to regain a place among the cricketing elite and among cricket fans, as they developed ranks of players capable of taking over games with their power hitting, including Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels, Lendl Simmons, DJ Bravo, Andre Russell and Carlos Brathwaite. They beat Australia and then host Sri Lanka in the 2012 World Twenty20 to win their first ICC world championship since the 1979 World Cup and then bested England to win the 2016 World Twenty20, making them the first team to win the World Twenty20 twice. As an added bonus, the West Indies also became the first to win both the men's and women's World Twenty20 on the same day, as the women's team beat three-time defending champion Australia for their first ICC world title immediately beforehand. For the first time in the history of the tournament, the team did not qualify for the 2023 World Cup after losing to Scotland in the Super Six stage of the Qualifiers.
Flag and anthem
Most cricketing nations use their own national flags for cricketing purposes. However, as the West Indies represent a number of independent states and dependencies, there is no natural choice of flag. CWI has, therefore, developed an insignia showing a palm tree and cricket stumps on a small sunny island (see the top of this article). The insignia, on a maroon background, makes up the West Indian flag. The background sometimes has a white stripe above a green stripe, which is separated by a maroon stripe, passing horizontally through the middle of the background.Flags of the World InI page on the WICB flag Prior to 1999, CWI(C) had used a similar insignia featuring a cabbage palm tree and an island, but there were no stumps and, instead of the sun, there was the constellation Orion. It was designed in 1923 by Sir Algernon Aspinall, then Secretary of the West India Committee. Around the same time in the 1920s the suggested motto for the West Indies team was "Nec curat Orion leones", which comes from a quote by Horace, meaning that Orion, as symbolical of the West Indies XI, does not worry about the lions [of English cricket].
For ICC tournaments, an adapted version of "Rally 'Round the West Indies" by David Rudder is used as the team's anthem.Tagore, and World Cup's unique national anthems The Times of India. Retrieved 30 August 2021
Venues
The following thirteen stadiums have been used for at least one Test match.See Cricinfo for a list of Test match grounds The number of Tests played at each venue followed by the number of One Day Internationals and twenty20 internationals played at that venue is in brackets as of 2 April 2021:
Queen's Park Oval – Port of Spain, Trinidad (64/73/6): The Queen's Park Oval has hosted more Test matches than any other ground in the Caribbean and first hosted a Test match in 1930. The ground is considered one of the most picturesque venues in the world of cricket, featuring the view Trinidad's Northern Range. It has a capacity of over 18,000. Kensington Oval – Bridgetown, Barbados (56/50/32):Kensington Oval hosted the region's first Test match in 1930 and is recognised as the 'Mecca' of West Indies cricket. Its capacity was increased from 15,000 to 28,000 for the 2007 World Cup and down to its current capacity of 11,000 post – World Cup. It has hosted two ICC world finals – the 2007 Cricket World Cup Final, which Australia won over Sri Lanka, and the 2010 World Twenty20 Final, which England won against Australia.