West Indies cricket has been paying worried attention to events on the other side of the world. A combination of Bangladesh's sudden surge in their own favoured conditions that has transformed them into giant killers, Pakistan's 3-1 lead in their five-match ODI series in Sri Lanka and their own inactivity in the 50-overs format since the World Cup in February, raises the real possibility of their failure to qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy in England.


West Indies' Chris Gayle reacts after his century against Zimbabwe at the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup in Canberra on February 24. Pic/Getty Images 

The impact of such a scenario is predictable and devastating. The more tenuous it has become and as demeaning as it is for a team that that once utterly dominated the international game, West Indies value their status among the top eight international teams more than ever. To be absent in England two years hence would further damage the already diminishing interest of players and public, once passionately proud of their great teams of the 1960s and 1980 but now under the spell of T20.