While ODIs will be the most keenly followed format of international cricket over the coming weeks, West Indies may wonder what exactly they're trying to achieve when they play their 50-overs cricket. They'll want to pick themselves up, of course, after the shocks they suffered at the Qualifier in Zimbabwe, but pick themselves up to do what?

 

With no World Cup to prepare for, there's no wider context to ODI cricket for West Indies for now. There are no World Cup Super League points to win, and there's no threat just yet that they'll fail to make the 2027 World Cup, which will feature 14 teams who will qualify based on their ODI rankings.

 

West Indies' fans, however, would do well not to mistake the lack of a wider context for a lack of purpose. While it would be easy to look at the team's failure to qualify for the World Cup as a sign of their unstoppable decline as a cricketing force, the reality isn't quite so abject. The top Associate teams have made white-ball cricket more competitive now than it ever has been, and the gap between the world's ninth-best and 13th-best ODI teams has never been narrower. It just so happens that the sport is growing when its World Cup has shrunk.

 

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