West Indies cricket team


The West Indies cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a multi-national men's cricket team representing the mainly English-speaking nations and territories in the Caribbean region and administered by Cricket West Indies. The players on this composite team are selected from a chain of fifteen Caribbean territories, which are parts of [|several different countries and dependencies]., the West Indies cricket team is ranked eighth in the world in Tests, ninth in One-Day Internationals and ninth in Twenty20 Internationals in the official International Cricket Council rankings.
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 cricket. A number of cricketers who were considered among the best in the world have hailed from the West Indies: Sir Garfield Sobers, Lance Gibbs, George Headley, Brian Lara, Chris Gayle, Clive Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Alvin Kalicharan, Sir Andy Roberts, Rohan Kanhai, Sir Frank Worrell, Sir Clyde Walcott, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Curtly Ambrose, Michael Holding, Courtney Walsh, Joel Garner, Sir Viv Richards and Sir Wes Hall have all been inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame.
The West Indies have won the ICC Cricket World Cup twice, the ICC World Twenty20 twice, the ICC Champions Trophy once, the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup once, and have also finished as runners-up in the Cricket World Cup, the Under 19 Cricket World Cup, and the ICC Champions Trophy. The West Indies appeared in three consecutive World Cup finals, and were the first team to win back-to-back World Cups.
The West Indies have hosted the 2007 Cricket World Cup and the 2010 ICC World Twenty20. In June 2019, during the 2019 Cricket World Cup, the West Indies played their 800th ODI match.

Member states and dependencies

The current side represents:
; Legends
; Notes

Affiliates in Cricket West Indies

, the governing body of the team, consists of the six cricket associations of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Leeward Islands and Windward Islands. The Leeward Islands Cricket Association consists of associations of one sovereign state, the two entities of Saint Kitts and Nevis, three British Overseas Territories and two other dependencies. The Windward Islands Cricket Board of Control consists of associations of four sovereign states.
Currently, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, other historical parts of the former West Indies Federation and now British Overseas Territories, have their own teams.
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 Carib Beer Cup. 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 population of these countries and dependencies is officially estimated at around 6 million, which is more than Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.
The member associations of Cricket West Indies are:
; Legends

History

The history of the West Indies cricket team began in the 1890s, when the first representative sides were selected to play visiting English sides. The WICB joined the sport's international ruling body, the Imperial Cricket Conference, in 1926, and played their first official international match, granted Test status, in 1928, thus becoming the fourth Test 'nation'. In their early days in the 1930s, the side 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 side changed from a white-dominated to a black-dominated side under the successive captaincies of Frank Worrell and Gary Sobers.
By the late 1970s, the West Indies led by Clive Lloyd had a side recognised as unofficial world champions, a reputation they retained throughout the 1980s. 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, 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.

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. The WICB has, therefore, developed an insignia showing a palm tree and cricket stumps on a small sunny island. 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. Prior to 1999, the WICB 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 .
For ICC tournaments, 'Rally Round the West Indies' by David Rudder is used as the team's anthem.

Venues

The following eleven stadia have been used for at least one Test match. 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 12 January 2020:
Three further stadia have been used for One Day Internationals, but not Test matches. The number of One Day Internationals played at each venue is in brackets:

ODI grounds

Clothing

When playing one-day cricket, the Windies wear a maroon-coloured shirt and trousers. The shirt also sports the logo of the West Indian Cricket Board and the name of their sponsors, at present, Sandals has been the sponsor since 2018 and of their suppliers BLK. The one-day cap is maroon with the WICB logo on the left of the front, with two yellow stripes.
When playing first-class cricket, in addition to their cricket flannels West Indian fielders sometimes wear a maroon sunhat with a wide brim or a maroon baggy cap. The WICB logo is on the front of the hat. Helmets are coloured similarly.
The sweater was edged with Maroon,green and grey.Gold was added to the stripes in the early 2000s. The design reverted to a simple maroon facing when the West Indies began wearing fleeces.In 2020 they again wore the traditional cable knit sweaters edged with Maroon and Green. When the team toured they wore maroon caps but in test matches in the Caribbean, it was customary for the team to wear dark blue caps until the late 1970s. The blazers awarded for home tests were dark blue with white and green faciings.An example is displayed in the museum at Lords. After c 1977 home and away teams both wore maroon caps and the blazers were the same colours.
During World Series Cricket, coloured uniforms were adopted. The initial West Indies uniform was pink and was later changed to maroon to match their Test match caps. Grey was also added as a secondary colour. In some of their uniforms grey has been dominant over the traditional maroon. Some uniforms had green, yellow or white as accent colour.
Former uniform suppliers were Joma, Woodworm, Admiral, Asics, UK Sportsgear, ISC and Adidas.
Former sponsors were Digicel, KFC, Cable & Wireless, Carib Beer and Kingfisher.

West Indies women's cricket team

The West Indies women's cricket team enjoy a much lower profile than the men's team. They played 11 Test matches between 1975–76 and 1979, winning once, losing three times, and drawing the other games. Since then, they have only played one further Test match, a draw game against Pakistan in 2003–04. They also have an infrequent record in One Day Internationals. A team from Trinidad and Tobago and a team from Jamaica played in the first women's World Cup in 1973, with both sides faring poorly, finishing fifth and sixth respectively out of a field of seven. The Windies united as a team to play their first ODI in 1979, but thereafter did not play until the 1993 World Cup. The side has never been one of the leading sides in the world, however, since the 2013 World Cup, where the team finished runner-ups, the team has improved reasonably well. Their main success being achieving second place in the International Women's Cricket Council Trophy, a competition for the second tier of women's national cricket teams, in 2003. Their overall record in one-dayers is to have played 177, won 80, lost 91 with one tie and 5 no results.
Because of the women's side's relatively low profile, there are few well-known names in the game. The most notable is probably Nadine George, a wicket-keeper/batsman, who became the first, and to date only, West Indian woman to score a Test century, in Karachi, Pakistan in 2003–04. George is a prominent supporter of sport in the West Indies, and in particular, in her native St Lucia, and in 2005 was made an MBE by the Prince of Wales for services to sport.
2016 saw the West Indies women win their first ICC world championship – the 2016 Women's World Twenty20, after beating three-time defending champion Australia by eight wickets at Eden Gardens with members of the men's team in the crowd to support.

Tournament history

A red box around the year indicates tournaments played within West Indies

Cricket World Cup

ICC Trophy/ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier

ICC Champions Trophy

Known as the 'ICC Knockout' in 1998 and 2000.

World Championship of Cricket

1985: Third place stand

Honours

Statistics and records

; Innings totals above 700
For: 790 for 3 declared against Pakistan in Kingston in 1957–58; 751 for 5 declared against England in St John's in 2003–04; 747 all out against South Africa in St John's in 2004–05; 749 for 9 declared against England in Bridgetown in 2008–2009
Against: 849 by England in Kingston in 1929–30; 758 for 8 declared by Australia in Kingston in 1954–55
; Innings totals below 60
For: 47 against England in Kingston in 2003–04; 51 against Australia in Port of Spain in 1998–99; 53 against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 1986–87; 54 against England at Lord's in 2000; 60 against Pakistan in Karachi in 2017-18
Against: 46 by England in Port of Spain in 1993–94; 51 by England in Kingston in 2008–09
; Triple centuries scored for the Windies
400 not out by Brian Lara against England at St John's in 2003–04; 375 by Brian Lara against England at St John's in 1993–94; 365 not out by Garry Sobers against Pakistan at Kingston in 1957–58; 333 by Chris Gayle against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2010–11; 317 by Chris Gayle against South Africa at St John's in 2004–05; 302 by Lawrence Rowe against England at Bridgetown in 1973–74
; Twelve or more wickets were taken for the Windies in a Test match
14 for the cost of 149 runs by Michael Holding against England at the Oval in 1976; 13 for 55 by Courtney Walsh against New Zealand in Wellington in 1994–95; 12 for 121 by Andy Roberts against India in Madras in 1974–75
; Hat-tricks
Wes Hall against Pakistan in 1959; Lance Gibbs against Australia in 1961; Courtney Walsh against Australia in 1988; and Jermaine Lawson against Australia in 2003

One-day matches

; Hat-trick
An ODI hat-trick performance was made by Jerome Taylor on 19 October 2006 at Mumbai in an ICC Champions Trophy league match against Australia
At the ICC 2011 Cricket World Cup, Kemar Roach became the sixth bowler to claim a World Cup hat-trick against the Netherlands

Test captains

The following men have captained the West Indian cricket team in at least one Test match:
, who captained the West Indies between 1993–94 and 1997–98.

Squad

This is a list of every active player to have played for West Indies in the last year, and the forms of the game in which they have played.

Coaching staff