Will this be Windies’ poorest show at a Cricket World Cup?

Brandon Corlette asks

The jaded Team West Indies are certainly off the radar in terms of gaining qualification for cricket’s global showpiece, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC’s) 2019 Cricket World Cup.

They will, however, play Sri Lanka and Afghanistan in the two remaining matches in which they conclude a poor World Cup campaign. Their match against Sri Lanka will be played on Monday July 1, while they oppose Afghanistan on Thursday July 4.
When the first three World Cup tournaments were played, West Indies were a dominant force, winning the title for the first two editions; but the quality of their play began to deteriorate from 1999, and in the last five editions of cricket’s most prestigious tournament, they have, at best, turned in pedestrian performances. If they lose these remaining two matches in this 2019 World Cup campaign, their showing would certainly be remembered as the poorest yet in World Cup history.

This Jason Holder-led West Indies team have hitherto won only one of the seven matches played in their 2019 World Cup campaign; whereas, in their 2015 campaign, they had won three matches out of six, and in the 2011 campaign, they had won three matches. They had managed four wins in the 2007 campaign, and three wins in the 2003 campaign; whereas, in the 1999 campaign, they had recorded three wins.
This 2019 tournament will see the West Indies playing a total of nine matches, thus the most wins possible for their entire campaign is three. If they lose one of these remaining matches, they would have recorded their poorest showing in the last five editions of the World Cup.
Prior to this 2019 debacle, the West Indies have demonstrated an ability to win matches. They levelled the ODI bilateral series against England, beat New Zealand in a warm-up match, and bounced out Pakistan for an easy win. But that all seems to have happened in a past lifetime, and the West Indies have not tasted victory since May 31, almost one month ago.
Chris Gayle’s farewell has been gatecrashed. He badly wanted to be in the team that wins the World Cup, but all hope for that is lost, and he is now hoping for a good send-off in the Home Series against India.
Speaking of hope, West Indies’ gifted batsman Shai Hope has been below par with the bat. He commenced his World Cup campaign being rated world’s number four batsman, but has failed to live up to expectations.
Gayle is the only West Indies batsman to surpass 200 runs in this World Cup, while Hope is tailing with 192 runs. The dynamic duo of Nicholas Pooran and Shimron Hetmyer have scored 191 and 189 respectively.
Carlos Brathwaite can seemingly perform to his optimum only every two years; and he certainly did that when he became the first man from the Caribbean to score a century in this 2019 World Cup.
Holder, who has made a lot of errors as captain, has also not been up to standard with the bat, after scoring a double century in Test cricket and stamping his authority as an all-rounder.
Sheldon Cottrell has been doing fairly well with the ball, taking 11 wickets thus far in the tournament, while Oshane Thomas has taken seven wickets.
Kemar Roach, most experienced West Indies seamer in the tour, has also been impressive when his limited opportunities present themselves.

What has been the problem with the West Indies this World Cup?
Team West Indies have certainly not been consistent. they lacked the ability to dominate at critical moments, and they lacked the ability to dominate when placed in strong positions.
Team West Indies also do not have a quality spin-bowler, and with the exception of Gayle, no West Indies spinner has taken a wicket.
West Indies batsmen have had starts that surpassed 50 ten times, but only once did a batsman convert that into three figures.
The batsmen have lacked the ability to bat ‘deep’. Pooran and Hetmyer have always looked promising in this World Cup, but have not batted ‘deep’ enough.
With two matches remaining, and with ignominy staring them in the face, the West Indies will have to find solutions for these problems, especially as they prepare for the Home Series against India.