The ODI History of West Indies
The West Indies have made three appearances in the Cricket World Cup final. These actually happen to be the first three World Cups that were ever staged, with the Caribbean side having failed to make as much of an impact as the decades have progressed.
Even so, this is a team who have a proud history when it comes to One Day International cricket. When the decision to host the first ever Cricket World Cup was made in 1975, England played the part of host and there were eight teams who participated in the competition.
The Windies were able to beat the three teams in the group who happened to be Australia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. There was then a comfortable win over New Zealand in the semi-final at The Oval before an inspired century from Clive Lloyd was able to score 102 runs to help them to a victory against Australia once again.
In 1979, the second Cricket World Cup took place and this was once again hosted by England, with Gordon Greenidge inspiring the West Indies to a second success. The batsman produced some incredible performances and racked up 253 runs, even if Mike Hendrick of England shone the most brightly by taking ten wickets.
West Indies beat New Zealand and India during the group stage to finish top of the section and there was then a relatively comfortable win over Pakistan before an emphatic victory over England which means that they retained their crown.
Viv Richards and Collis King were the stars of the show in the final, with the former proving to be the man on the spot when scoring 138 runs from 157 balls. This included eleven fours and three sixes, while King was able to amass 86 runs from 66 balls.
West Indies then made it to their third consecutive final when competing in the 1983 World Cup which was hosted by England and Wales, with the team typically topping the section by finishing ahead of India, while they then beat Pakistan in the semi-finals before surprisingly losing to India in the showdown.
Who Holds the ODI Records for West Indies?
It’s no surprise to find Brian Lara featuring near the top of the runscorer charts, with this batsman being one of the two players to notch over 10,000 runs at One Day International level. However, it’s Chris Gayle who currently boasts the record and 10,425 runs scored between 1999-2019 is clearly going to be a difficult total to beat.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul is next in the standings and has 8,778 runs. The leading batsmen are more recent than the World Cup winners due to the volume of matches that are subsequently played. However, Desmond Haynes and Viv Richard also take pride of place in the top five.
Chris Gayle is also in the top five wicket takers proving what an adept all rounder he was for the West Indies ODI team, with Courtney Walsh having topped the chart by taking 227 wickets between 1985-2000. Curtly Ambrose was just pipped after getting 225 wickets and Dwayne Bravo bowed out on 199 wickets at ODI level.
