Worries over woeful West Indies

In The Australian, Malcolm Conn complains about the "parlous" state of world cricket, with West Indies not having won a Test since May 2005.

There are only 10 official Test-playing nations and three of them now range from hopeless to utterly hopeless. What other major international sport has 30 per cent of its teams which are so uncompetitive they cannot win a single match between them in 24 months? The plight is so bad that while Zimbabwe remains on the gravy train of the International Cricket Council's board of Test countries which control the game, it is so weak it is not even playing Test cricket. Unfortunately the ICC is so utterly gutless and politically compromised that it fails to impose any minimum standards on its teams.

The ICC's own player rankings, which are constantly emailed as part of a sponsorship deal, highlights just how little regard the fundamentally flawed organisation has for standards. There is not a single Zimbabwe player ranked in the top 100 batsmen or bowlers. It's not that hard if you're any good. Stuart MacGill, who has not played for more than a year, is still ranked 20 and Michael Kasprowicz 34. It's time for the ICC to step up where it counts.