"This Pre-Dates...": Bishop's Blunt Take On West Indies Failing To Qualify For ICC World Cup 2023

West Indies cricket's "gradual decline" reminds Ian Bishop of those big business entities of yesteryears which didn't evolve with time and perhaps will never regain its lost glory. Bishop, a fearsome fast bowler of late '80s till mid '90s, is hurt like any other Caribbean cricketer after watching Shai Hope's team being thrashed by Scotland as the former champions failed to qualify for the ODI World Cup for the first time in 48 years. Bishop believes that it will be wrong to point fingers at the current crop of West Indies players for this deterioration started way back.

"Yes, it has been a gradual decline. I've always said this pre-dates this group of players. We haven't played consistently good ODI cricket against the top nations for perhaps a decade now. The T20 team, after having been two-time champions, they have slid," Bishop told 'ESPN Cricinfo'.

The 55-year-old, who has 161 Test and 118 ODI wickets, believes that lack of vision has been one of the biggest reasons that has led to this day.

"So like big corporations who were at one time at the peak of their powers, and then through, I suppose, a lack of vision or whatever you want to call it, they disappeared off the business scene, (and that is what has happened) for West Indies cricket, two-time world champions, who popularised the field for ODI cricket," he said.

".....we need all hands on board to get the representation back to where it needs to be." Bishop was clear that even if West Indies can claw their way back towards the upper echelons of the game, they wouldn't enjoy the pole position like they did four or even three decades back. And reasons aren't just cricketing one.

"We will never dominate like we did in the '80s and the first half of the '90s. I