The journey of West Indies cricket team in ICC World Cup 2015
The 11th ICC Cricket World Cup was hosted by Australia and New Zealand in 2015. The Mega event started from 14th February and ended on 29 March. In this World Cup, top 14 national teams were split into two pools of seven, at the end; four teams from each pool were advanced to knockout stages. The final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 was played in Melbourne Cricket Ground between both co-hosts, Australia and New Zealand. The West Indies Cricket team went to Down Under as 7th rank ODI team to compete in mega tournament.
Disappointing series against SA/IND before World Cup
Before starting their World Cup Journey, West Indies went to South Africa where they lost ODI series (4–1) to host. Before that West Indies Cricket team pull out midway from ODI series against India. The team didn’t play the 5th and last ODI match, and lost the series (2–1) to India. The preparation of World cup was disappointing for West Indies Cricket team, as they were not performing consistently, not only this the players were having issues with cricket board that didn’t help them either.
Clash between WIPA and WICB
There was major clash between West Indies Player Associations (WIPA) and West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) before the ICC World Cup 2015. This all started in September 2014, when West Indies star all-rounder Dwayne Bravo accused cricket board that they allegedly signed the memorandum without player’s agreement, and having dispute over salary as well. These issues remained unsolved before the World cup 2015 and even went on till ICC T20 World Cup 2016.
Start of their Campaign
Besides all their issues with cricket board, lack of consistent and quality cricket; West Indies start their journey under the captaincy of Jason Holder. West Indies was in Pool B alongside with India, South Africa, Pakistan, Ireland, Zimbabwe, and United Arab Emirates.
Squad of West Indies Cricket team
West Indies had few big names in their squad; Players like Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Darren Sammy, Andre Russell, and Jerome Taylor had played and performed all around the world; these players were battletested. Besides having the balanced squad, talent, and style the odds of West Indies team winning the world cup were 15/1.
Pool Matches
Windies played their first match of ICC World Cup against Ireland, where they put the total of 304 runs on scoreboard. But Ireland chased that massive target and ruined the perfect start of West Indies. After losing their first Match, they bounced back and thrashed Pakistan cricket team and won that match by 150 runs. West Indies then mauled Zimbabwe next, where Chris Gayle scored 215 runs including 16 sixes in that innings. West Indies won that match by 73 runs, and once again showed great strength of their batting.
In first three games, West Indies scored 300+ runs in every match, but their bowling strength was still in doubt. In their next Match, South Africa exposed West Indians bowling and just belittled them by putting huge total of 408 runs on board, not only this South African bowlers also bullied West Indians batsmen and took all their wickets. West Indies were only able to score 151 runs, which were even less than AB De Villiers score in first innings. De Villiers played the merciless innings of 162* runs on just 66 balls, he went berserk with the strike rate of 245.45.
In next game, they were outplayed by defending Champion India. West Indians batting line up collapsed again, India won that match by 4 wickets. In their last game of pool stage, West Indies beat United Arab Emirates convincingly by 6 wickets. Both Ireland and West Indies were equal on point table with 6 points each, but West Indies advanced to quarter final because of their better net run rate in pool stage. It was clear that West Indies struggled heavily against top cricket teams, but they still had the chance to perform at quarter final and progressed to Semis of World Cup.
Quarter final
Windies were standing last in Pool B, which really didn’t help them, because they had to face New Zealand in Quarter Final. New Zealand was on such a tear they were undefeated despite being in the pool of death (Pool A). New Zealand put West Indies in their place and beat them by 143 runs, and showed the world why they were favorites to win to ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Martin Guptill put on masterpiece against them and scored 237* runs, that was the highest score by any player in that World Cup. West Indian bowling failed them again, and that was the end of their Journey in ICC World Cup 2015.
Overall Performance in World Cup
West Indies cricket team performed well at times, but again the inconsistency and lack of quality cricket against top sides were the reason of their departure from World cup. The best Performance in their campaign was against Pakistan, where they capitalized on all mistakes of Pakistani Team, and performed exceptionally in both batting and bowling Departments. The best player in West Indians side was the Captain Jason Holder; 23 year old skipper performed well under pressure with bowl and bat, and led his team to some good victories. Jerome Taylor was able to get 17 wickets in the tournament; Chris Gayle was able to clear the boundary 26 times more than anybody in World Cup.
Comeback after World Cup
The departure from world cup left bad taste in their mouth, but West Indies team was able to turn around and won ICC T20 World Cup 2016 in India. Facing all the issues with WICB, not getting paid did not deter them for performing of their country and eventually winning the T20 World cup. West Indian U 19 team won the U19 World Cup in 2016. and West Indian Women also team won the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup in 2016. That was the remarkable comeback for West Indies Cricket after series of disappointments, failures and adversity.
