West Indies Cricket Fans Forum
What is wrong with West Indies Cricket?
The biggest reason for the decline of West Indies cricket has been the diminishing importance of county cricket as a honing ground for international cricket.
A large proportion of West Indies legends had long stints in England playing county cricket. At the time, English county cricket was still a leading force, and standards were close to international test cricket. Before the Windies teams of the 70s and 80s, it was the English team which used to lead the world of test cricket in the 60s.
Since the 90s, the cricket world has been led by countries other than England, with which the Windies do not share such deep connections. In any case, the Australian and Indian domestic structures do not allow foreign players.
The impact has been especially bad on the quality of their batting. Against the 8 old test playing nations, in their glory days of the 80s, the Windies used to average 355 runs in an innings, by the 2010s, this had fallen drastically to 267 runs in an innings.
In T20 cricket, the one format of cricket where the Windies players do get the chance to play in top international leagues, their international team holds their own. And this is despite loads of political issues that often led to top players like Dwayne Bravo not playing international games.
It is time for the cricket boards of Australia and India to open up their domestic First Class tournaments (Ranji trophy, Sheffield Shield) to foreign players if small countries like the Windies have to compete.
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Guyana Diaspora Forum
We have a large database of Guyanese worldwide. Most of our readers are in the USA, Canada, and the UK. Our Blog and Newsletter would not only carry articles and videos on Guyana, but also other articles on a wide range of subjects that may be of interest to our readers in over 200 countries, many of them non-Guyanese We hope that you like our selections.
It is estimated that over one million Guyanese, when counting their dependents, live outside of Guyana. This exceeds the population of Guyana, which is now about 750,000. Many left early in the 50’s and 60’s while others went with the next wave in the 70’s and 80’s. The latest wave left over the last 20 years. This outflow of Guyanese, therefore, covers some three generations. This outflow still continues today, where over 80 % of U.G. graduates now leave after graduating. We hope this changes, and soon.
Guyanese, like most others, try to keep their culture and pass it on to their children and grandchildren. The problem has been that many Guyanese have not looked back, or if they did it was only fleetingly. This means that the younger generations and those who left at an early age know very little about Guyana since many have not visited the country. Also, if they do get information about Guyana, it is usually negative and thus the cycle of non-interest is cultivated.
This Guyana Diaspora Online Forum , along with its monthly newsletter, aims at bringing Guyanese together to support positive news, increase travel and tourism in Guyana and, in general, foster the birth of a new Guyana, which has already begun notwithstanding the negative news that grabs the headlines. As the editor and manager of the publication, I am committed to delivering Blog entries and Newsletters that are politically balanced, and focused on the positive ideas we wish to share and foster among Guyanese.
