The West Indies cricket team has slipped further in the International Cricket Council (ICC) ratings and is now on the brink of missing the next ICC Champions Trophy tournament series in England in 2017. Bangladesh’s series victory over India on Sunday has seen them leapfrog the West Indies into seventh position in the table. Prior to this series, the West Indies who are inactive in ODIs these days were in seventh position on 88 rating points.
However, the Bangladeshis have now gone to 93 points by virtue of winning against a higher ranked team than themselves. India, with the loss, still holds the number two position on 114 points. The ICC has set as September 30, the cut off date for the teams to make the grade for the ICC Champions Trophy. Only the top eight teams will make the tournament. The West Indies who won the tournament back in 2004 has never missed the tournament.
Currently they lead Pakistan who is in ninth spot by just a solitary point. Pakistan will play Zimbabwe in the series next month and although Zimbabwe are ranked lower than Pakistan, if they beat the Africans they will still gain points. Pakistan also has matches against Sri Lanka—so they can gain points and get past the West Indies.
The West Indies will be inactive during the period unless the WICB can make arrangements to send the team to Zimbabwe as the Future Tours Programme (FTP) is suggesting. Originally there was supposed to be a four-nation tournament in Zimbabwe involving the host, West Indies, Pakistan and Bangladesh. However it was scuppered after Bangladesh pulled out. The WICB will now have to seek matches in order to save the Champions Trophy.
