Full hearts, empty pockets

A few days ago, a fellow cricket head pulled me aside and posed a straightforward question: “How would you rate the West Indies’ white-ball tour to India?” After mulling it over for a few seconds and working on a scale from one to ten (where a one is an absolute, unmitigated disaster and a ten is pure, flawless perfection), I settled firmly on a nine out of ten. A ten would have required a clean sweep of every single match, but a rating of nine places this campaign squarely in the “Very Good” category.

To be completely transparent, this tour exceeded my wildest expectations. I had initially written off the One Day International series, bracing for a 3-0 whitewash, and while I anticipated a better showing in the T20s, I still expected West Indies to walk away on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline. To snatch a glorious win in the ODIs (and should have arguably won the series were it not for a few questionable calls) and fight back to draw the T20 series 2-2 means the team didn’t just compete, they defied the odds. This is India, IN India after all.

Let us be entirely honest, as I mentioned last week, the West Indies would not be celebrating a nine-out-of-ten rating if not for one man, Shai Diego Hope (until recently, I genuinely thought the name “Diego” was strictly reserved for footballing deities, but Hope is making a compelling case for cricket royalty). His performances across both formats were nothing short of phenomenal. A glance at his career statistics reveals where his true mastery lies: in ODI cricket, where he maintains an elite average of 51.48, boasting 21 centuries, 32 fifties, and 6,590 runs. His T20 numbers have surged after this Indian series, climbing to an average of 33.4 with just over 2,000 runs.

The lone scar on his resume remains Test cricket, where an average of 27.97 across 49 matches, with just five centuries, feels like a criminal underachievement for a batsman of his supreme calibre. Perhaps the burning desire for red-ball grind has faded, especially when you factor in the physical toll of keeping wicket and the lucrative lure of global T20 franchise leagues. But at just 32 years old, with an ODI World Cup next year and a T20 World Cup two years away, we can only pray he keeps himself fit and continues to churn out runs.

Crucially, Hope didn’t operate in a complete vacuum. Batting alongside him must feel like soaking up the calm waves at Store Bay; such is the manner in which he takes the heat off his partner and puts the opposition bowlers under so much pressure. Sherfane Rutherford was at his best and enjoyed his most consistent series yet. He seems set to command a regular place in the middle order alongside Shimron Hetmyer and Rovman Powell; together with Hope, these four should form the nucleus of the T20 batting lineup.

The second opening slot remains up for grabs. King Sammy seems to favour young Jewel Andrew despite starting with Kamil Pooran, but that door remains open for anyone (including the forgotten man, again, Amir Jangoo, or the promising 22-year-old Amazon Warriors opener, Mavendra Dindyal). Roston Chase will remain the utility player with both bat and ball, backed up by an explosive all-round core of Romario Shepherd, Keemo Paul, and Shamar Springer, with the veteran Jason Holder waiting in the wings. The WI T20 batting card is officially a threat to any nation on earth, and if the elder statesmen follow the example of Hope in a year or so, the dependency syndrome on Hope could be no more.

If the batting gets a glowing report card, the bowling remains the primary source of anxiety. The West Indies pacers desperately need more T20 match mileage to master the exact lengths required during the powerplay and the death overs. Diagnosing this problem feels a bit like state-the-obvious Mr Bean logic: given the endless mountain of T20 cricket these players accumulate worldwide, you would assume that nailing a yorker in the 19th over or restricting runs in the powerplay would come as easily as getting tickets for a Test match in the Caribbean on a Friday afternoon. Yet, game after game, WI leaks runs at the start and haemorrhages them at the end. The only remedy is bowling under high-stakes match conditions, as no amount of net practice can replicate the pressure of match day.

The immediate problem? There are zero international T20s left in the schedule for the remainder of the year. Thankfully, West Indies have qualified directly for the 2028 T20 World Cup from October 21 to November 19, 2028. However, after finishing tenth in the ICC rankings and missing automatic qualification, the ODI Team must navigate a gruelling ten-team ICC Men’s ODI World Cup qualifier, scheduled to take place from February 22 to March 23, 2027. The West Indies squad will have to be prepared and ready.

Next up, the Maroon caps embark on a short two-Test series against Bangladesh, with the first test starting on October 28, 2026 and the final test starting on November 5, 2026. Once again, West Indies are relegated to a brief two-match campaign, while the “Big Three” (Australia, England, and India) routinely play five-Test sagas against each other and three-Test series against the so-called ‘smaller nations’.

Pakistan toured the West Indies earlier this year and played two Tests before jetting off to England for three. It is no wonder that, on the field of play, the Big Three will continue to dominate world cricket, simply because they play more cricket in all three formats of the game and are handed bigger purses by the ICC.

Consider the financial reality of this Indian tour: the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) generates an estimated US$20 million to US$30 million from broadcast rights, media fees, and sponsorships when the West Indies visits. The revenue split between the two boards is 100 per cent to the BCCI and zero per cent to Cricket West Indies. A ridiculous vote taken by the ICC in 1997 means that the host board keeps all bilateral broadcast revenue, replacing the guaranteed touring fees that visiting teams once received.

Cricket West Indies relies heavily on its annual ICC distribution of roughly US$27.5 million, while staring at a projected net loss of around US$26 million this year. Compare that to India, which scoops up an absurd US$230 million annually—or US$1.1 billion over the four-year commercial cycle. It baffles the mind why the rest of the cricketing world doesn’t unite and say enough is enough, demand a fairer slice of the pie, and reinstate shared tour revenues.

Off the field, the financial game is blatantly rigged against CWI. But on the field in India, the West Indies showed grit, determination, fight, and absolute heart. They may have left India with empty pockets, but they returned to the Caribbean full of pride with their heads held high.

Editor’s note: The views expressed in the preceding article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of any organisation in which he is a stakeholder.