The last ranking of teams for 2018 as put out on December 31 by the International Cricket Council (ICC), the world's governing body for cricket, showed the once-mighty West Indies and their once-gifted band of players languishing near the bottom of the listing.
In Test cricket, the West Indies found themselves in eighth position, one solitary point ahead of Bangladesh; in One-day International (ODI) cricket, the West Indies were in ninth position, above Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, and Ireland; and in T20 cricket, the West Indies were in seventh position, only above teams like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, and Ireland.
And as far as the ranking of individual players was concerned, it was just as bleak.
In Test cricket, the ICC team of the year had only Jason Holder in it, and that was based on his wonderful performance against lowly Bangladesh. Also in Test cricket, there was not one West Indies player in the top 20 on the batting list, and there was only Jason Holder at number 10 and Shannon Gabriel at number 13 in the top 20 on the bowling list.
On the all-rounders' list, however, Holder was ranked number two.
Although the West Indies had two players, Holder and Gabriel, on the ESPN/CricInfo team of the year, one in Shai Hope on the One-Day team and one in Marlon Samuels on the T20 team, judging by the rankings, it was a poor year for the West Indies.
It also was noticeable by the heavy defeats suffered not so much against India, but against Bangladesh in the two-match Test series, which Bangladesh won 2-0, one by 64 runs and one by an innings and 184 runs with both finishing inside three days.
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