Steve Waugh launches promise by One Young World delegates to champion West Indies cricket
©One Young World
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Steve Waugh wants to see West Indies strong again
Former Australian captain Steve Waugh expressed his desire to see the West Indies team back among the top nations in world cricket.
In the last couple of decades, West Indies cricket has seen a steady decline, which took them from world beaters to the eight ranked Test team.
In the twenty years, starting from 1970, West Indies played 145 Test matches and won 61 games, while losing just 23 matches.
In comparison, between 1990 and 2009, West Indies played 189 Tests and won just 48 games, while losing 87 matches, making for a win-loss ratio of 0.551.
Between 1999 and 2004, under the captaincy of Waugh, Australia played 57 Tests and won 41 matches while losing just nine games and drawing seven.
Waugh admitted that the Australian team’s under his tenure was highly inspired by the golden era of the West Indies cricket.
"I used to love playing cricket in the Caribbean,” said Waugh at the annual One Young World summit in Bangkok.
“It was such a fun party atmosphere and they were the benchmark for cricket.
“I mean that was what the Australian team’s success was based on, following the blueprint of what the West Indies cricket used to be and used to do. Yeah – it was, no shame in that.
They were too good for everyone.
“They were unbeaten for 15 years.
“Australia hadn’t beaten the West Indies for 22 years and I definitely followed their model and we tried to tweak it a bit to suit Australia’s way of cricket.”
The decline continued further between 2010 and 2015, wherein West Indies played 48 games and managed to win just 12 matches during the period.
The decline of the West Indies cricket is also evident from the fact that the two-time world champions are currently languishing at the ninth position in the One-Day Internationals.
Identifying the lack of leadership as the cause for their decline, Waugh believes that a strong West Indies team bodes well for world cricket.
“What has happened in the West Indies unfortunately in the last 10 years is that they have lacked leadership.
“They need to get back that real sense of pride for playing for the West Indies.
“They have a great culture and tradition in cricket.
“I would hate to see that lost because a poor West Indies cricket side really weakens world cricket - so I, for one, would love to see the West Indies strong again.”
West Indies are currently scheduled to tour Australia to play a three-match Test series, which gets underway on the 10th of December in Hobart.
© Cricket World 2015
