West Indies' 500th Test: The history of the once-mighty team now in a shambles

The once-mighty West Indies play their 500th Test in history on Saturday as they take on Bangladesh at Gros Islet.

Thus, West Indies will become the third country after Australia and England to have played 500 Tests in their cricketing history. While they are favourites to win their 500th Test, recent times have not been so kind for the Windies. After an incredible run from 1980 to 1994 when the Windies were unquestionably the best Test side in the world, the team has been in almost perpetual decline.

Figure this: Between November 1980 and December 1993, that is from their 201st to 300th Test, West Indies won 53 and lost just 13 games. For fifteen years starting 1980, the West Indies did not lose a single series home or away. That is an incredible statistic that has not been matched even by the memorable Australian side of the 90s and 2000s.

The key to West Indies' success through the 80s and into the early 90s was their battery of fast bowlers, feared around the world. Indeed, they were some of the finest fast bowlers the game has ever seen. When one thinks of West Indies in their pomp, Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Andy Roberts all come to mind. Then there was the next line of bowlers - Patrick Patterson, Courtney Walsh, Curtly Ambrose and Ian Bishop. This crop of bowlers, bar Patterson, all lasted well into the 1990s. After them though, there was nobody to take up the reins.

But it was not merely the Carribean bowling that was fearsome. Sir Vivian Richards was arguably the best batsman in the world through the latter half of the 1970s and well into the mid 80s. Windies also had a brilliant support cast made up of Clive Lloyd, Alwin Kallicharan, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge, Richie Richardson and more.

The West Indies played in an era where run rates of two per over were the norm in Test cricket. Attritional batting was preferred to an appetite for quick scoring. The pitches in the Windies, in England and Australia were far more bowler friendly than they are today, and the art of spin was still largely restricted to the subcontinent. Dreary draws were not always seen as a poor advertisement for Test cricket, though ODI cricket was on the rise. It is no surprise then that even during their peak from 1980 to 1994, the Windies drew nearly half the Tests they played. 

England was West Indies' favourite whipping boy in the 1980s, and this trend continued into the 1990s. West Indies blanked England 5-0 both home and in England in the 1980s, and then Curtly Ambrose in particular continued to savage them in the 1990s. England however were a strong side in the 1980s (unlike the 90s) so West Indies' achievement at the time assumes greater importance. 

As the Windies team entered the 1990s, early signs of decline did become visible. From the late 80s onwards, Vivian Richards began to lose his eyesight and consequently his batting ability. Malcolm Marshall retired, and so did Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Garner and Gordon Greenidge. Haynes retired in 1994, but by this time the West Indies juggernaut was close to being beaten. The coming of Brian Lara, Keith Arthurton, Jimmy Adams and Richie Richardson and bowlers Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop helped keep the Windies on top for a while.

Undefeated for 13 years, West Indies survived their mightiest scare on the Australian tour of 1992/93. After having conceded the 2nd Test in Melbourne to Australia and drawn two others, Windies entered the fourth Test in Adelaide desperate for a victory. Today's Adelaide is a flat wicket - in 1993 it was far more spicy. After scoring just 252 in the first innings, Windies bowled out Australia for 213 thanks to a fine 6/74 from Curtly Ambrose at the peak of his career.

However, the second innings turned out to be a disaster as the West Indies collapsed for 146, setting Australia just 186 to win the match and the series, ending the Windies' 13-year unbeaten series record.

Not for nothing though were Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop all at their peak. They reduced the Australians to 102/8 before off-break bowler Tim May put up an incredible fight, first with Justin Langer and then with Craig McDermott. Nos 10 and 11 took Australia to within a run of leveling scores, before Walsh finally had McDermott caught behind. The Windies had come back from the jaws of an epic series defeat to win by a single run and level the series 1-1.

The fifth Test in Perth, traditionally the fastest wicket in the world, was a reminder to the world that West Indies were still far and away the best. They crushed Australia by an innings and 125 runs. The annihilation included 7/25 from Curtly Ambrose in a historic exhibition of fast bowling - which was made more special because Ambrose took all his 7 wickets for just one run in his second spell, breaking the back of the Australian middle and lower orders. At the end of it all, West Indies had won the series 2-1 and kept their crown on their heads. It was also the West Indies' fourth victory in four tests at Perth.

The return series in the West Indies, cut to four Tests, would signal the end of the Carribean team as unoffical World Test champions. They lost the first Test at Barbados easily, but after winning by 9 wickets on a minefield at Trindad, the campaign seemed to be back on track. In what would be a reversal of Perth 1993, however, Australia crushed Windies by an innings and 53 runs in the final Test at Jamaica to win the series 2-1 and signal the end of an era.

The end of that era would also be the beginning of another. Australia took over from where the Windies left off with an astonishing run as the best team in the world until well into 2008. 

After the epic 1995 series, West Indies have never recovered and are yet to win a series against Australia since. The closest they came was in 1999, and only because of one Brian Charles Lara. After West Indies lost the first Test comfortably, Lara cracked 213 in the second to give his team the lead in the second, which they won with ease. Then came one of the greatest innings ever - at Barbados, Lara successfully overcame Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill to take Windies home in a thrilling 1-wicket win. His 153 not out was ranked No 2 by Wisden in 2002, on the list of greatest ever Test innings.

However, after leading the series 2-1, the Windies slipped to a 176-run defeat in the final Test at Antigua to draw the series 2-2 and keep the Frank Worrell trophy in Australia's hands. Chasing 388, Windies finished on 211, with Lara failing to recreate his magic from the previous Test. However, he had already signed off with an 84-ball century and then the Man of the Series award. 

Never again would Windies prove to be a challenge for Australia either home or abroad. In fact, they would cease to be a challenge to most teams once Walsh and Ambrose had retired in the early 2000s. Between November 2003 and the present, Windies have won just 16 and lost 53 Tests. When South Africa defeated them at Port of Spain in 2010, they handed Windies their 153rd loss, as opposed to 152 wins, thus tipping their win-loss ratio to below 1.00 for the first time in history. 

The decline seems to be perpetual. Interest in cricket in the Windies has waned over the past few years, and the transformation of green wickets into dust bowls has sounded the death knell for fast bowling in the West Indies. Chris Gayle and Shivnarine Chanderpaul are the last of a dying breed of competitive West Indian players. With both these players well into their 30s, the future of Windies cricket looks bleak.