In what can be a shocking news for once World Cup winner, West Indies on Wednesday failed to qualify for the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy to be played in England.
Restricted to the world’s top eight-ranked sides, the Caribbeans missed out on the lucrative event after slumping to ninth place on Wednesday’s cut-off date.
Meanwhile, bringing laurels to their hometown, Bangladesh has made the cut. The team will return to Champions Trophy for the first time since 2006 after the eight sides were confirmed for the 2017 tournament.
It will be the first time since its inception year in 1998 (when Champions Trophy used to be known as Mini World Cup) that assortment of Caribbean nations will not be a part of a premier event. The failure to qualify marks the first time that Windies will be missing from any of cricket’s three big limited-overs events – the 50-overs World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Twenty20 World Cup.
Australia, India, South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and Pakistan also qualified, along with the host-nation England, who were automatically granted a place.
The 2017 Champions Trophy, which will be hosted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), will take place from June 1-18, with the eight qualified teams separated into two pools of four, and the top two from each group advancing to the knock-out phase.
ICC ODI Team Rankings (as on September 30):
1) Australia: 127 points
2) India: 115 points
3) South Africa: 110 points
4) New Zealand: 109 points
5) Sri Lanka: 103 points
6) England: 100 points
7) Bangladesh: 96 points
8) Pakistan: 90 points
9) West Indies: 88 points
10) Ireland: 49 points
11) Zimbabwe: 45 points
12) Afghanistan: 41 points