Lets put to bed : Minnow status

West Indies first dropped below number 3 in the ODI rankings in August 1991 when they moved from third to fifth. They did jump back to number 3 in October before falling to sixth in November. They spent all of 1992 (bar December) ranked fourth. Then in 1993 they regained the number 1 ranking. October 1999 was when they dropped to sixth, a position they have stayed at or below since then.

kudos !  I'll figure out "when and how" we got to # 9 : later on 

Here is a full list of the monthly rankings from 1981 to 2013:

github.com/dwillis/toss-up/blob/master/data/rankings_odi.csv

What are you arguing? That minnows don't exist? That Bangladesh isn't a minnow?

This is what I think:

1. Minnows exist.
2. WI suck
3. Bangladesh suck.
4. Bangladesh is getting better.
5. WI would beat Bangladesh in all formats, even at home.

WI started sucking in ODIs once Lara dropped down the order and once Walsh and Ambi approached retirement.

I typically say we started sucking in tests in 1994 and started sucking in ODIs in 99.

But 20 years of sucking is a drop in the water, and in that time we got to see other teams do well. We got to see Sri Lanka rise from nothing, we got to see another great Pakistan team, and with Ganguly and later Dohni we finally got to see a great Indian ODI team. Then South Africa had a short period of dominance, which seems to be dying off. Now NZ and England are finally putting together decent ODI teams. When have they ever had a good one?

So every team has their day in the sun. The only consistent thing during this period has been Australia dominating. And that's fun in its own way.