In 2023, the West Indies failed to qualify for the Men’s World Cup for the first time since the inception of the tournament. Here is how the West Indies have fared at the World Cups, right from the first one in 1975

West Indies at the Men’s World Cup: 1975 – 2023

1975: Clive Lloyd’s West Indians arrived as favourites, and won all five matches to lift the trophy. Only Pakistan came close in a league match, but the Caribbean last pair added 64 to clinch it.

1979: The match against Sri Lanka was washed out, but the West Indies hardly broke a sweat as they won everything else with ease. Gordon Greenidge and Viv Richards slammed the only two hundreds of the edition, while Joel Garner claimed one of the two five-fors.

1983: The West Indies started with their first World Cup defeat, against India, but they avenged that in the return match and topped Group B. They then lost the final against India despite bowling them out for 183.

1987: In Viv Richards, the West Indies had a new captain. They were undergoing a mini-transition following the retirements of Lloyd, Joel Garner, and Michael Holding, while Gordon Greenidge and Malcolm Marshall had opted out. They won both matches against Sri Lanka but only once more, and failed to make it to the top four for the first time.

1992: The West Indies began with a 10-wicket win against eventual champions Pakistan, but won only three of their other seven matches, and finished sixth out of nine teams in the league.

1996: After conceding two points by refusing to travel to Sri Lanka and being stunned by Kenya, the West Indies turned things around to qualify for the top eight, where they dished out South Africa their first defeat of the tournament. In the semi-final, they reduced Australia to 15-4 before conceding 207-8. Then, from 165-2, they collapsed to 202, and never made it to the top four again.

1999: Three wins in five matches – including one against New Zealand – were not enough for the West Indies to qualify for the Super Sixes.

2003: The West Indies began with a win against hosts South Africa, but failed to beat another Full Member. Yet again, they could not make it to the Super Sixes.

2007: Hosting the tournament for the first time, the West Indies entered the Super Eights unbeaten. Once there, however, they won only one out of six matches, against Bangladesh, and finished sixth.

2011: The West Indies scraped through to the quarter-finals on net run rate, where Pakistan thrashed them by a 10-wicket margin.

2015: A near-encore, where the West Indies qualified on net run rate. This time they lost to New Zealand by 143 runs. Some consolation came when Chris Gayle smashed the first double-hundred in the history of the tournament.

2019: For the first time, the West Indies had to play the Qualifier, but they did top the Super Six before losing the final to Afghanistan. At the main event, they beat Pakistan and Afghanistan to finish ninth out of ten teams.

2023: Three defeats in their first five matches of the Qualifier resulted in the West Indies getting knocked out of the World Cup race with two matches to go.

Subscribe to the Wisden Cricket YouTube channel for post-match analysis, player interviews, and much more.