Once mighty, West Indies are now fighting for survival

LAST week, members of the visiting West Indies team put themselves on the long flight from the Caribbean Islands to India.

- - SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

After multiple stopovers and the stamping of passports, they landed in the city more than a day after they had begun their journey. Their immediate dreams? Winning a Test in India for the first time this century: their last long format win on Indian soil came at Mohali in 1994.

Since 1994, they have come to these shores four times.

Won: 0; lost: 8; drawn: 2. When the series culminates in New Delhi in the middle of October, the cricketing fraternity expects that record to be 0; 10; 2 (as long as the weather holds).

It may also be the final time West Indies plays a Test series against India or in India. Welcome to the world of the fiveday game where some sides are God while others may be relegated and asked to come back up the food chain.

Now, the health of Test cricket, the oldest form of any organised, competitive sport with 'active' next to it, has been endlessly debated for at least the 30 years. But the air around these debates are markedly different from the earlier times. There is an increasing appetite towards a two-tiered system.

If it comes to pass in the next year or so - the current Future Tours Programme (FTP) finishes in 2027 with no agreement yet on the way forward post that with respect to bilateral red-ball cricket-the SENAI countries will likely be at the top-table. The fate of the others, including the West Indies, have been up in the air but they are likely to be clubbed with the likes of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ireland in the second tier.