'Long time coming': Ex-players castigate West Indies for failing to qualify for World Cup

Ian Bishop and Carlos Brathwaite, former West Indian greats, were disappointed after the Windies failed to qualify for the World Cup 2023, the first time in their history.

Scotland triumphed over the West Indies Saturday by seven wickets in the Super Six clash at the qualification tournament in Zimbabwe, sending the Windies out of the race to compete in the World Cup.

Since Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka already have six points, West Indies, who have zero points after three matches, won't be able to catch them in their remaining two games.

"It has been a long time coming," Brathwaite was quoted as saying by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

"Obviously, another format, T20, missed out (on the Super 12 stage) as well last year. So in white-ball cricket, there have been troubles in the past.

"I think this is the lowest you can go."

Meanwhile, Bishop said that West Indies cricket has been on a declining trend over the past decade.

"We haven't played consistently good one-day international cricket against the top nations for perhaps a decade," Bishop told the cricket website ESPN Cricinfo.

"I know there has been some introspection that has been taking place in the Caribbean. But what this does is, it says that we are at a few seconds to 12, and we need all hands on board to get the representation back to where it needs to be."

West Indies, who had never failed to qualify for a Cricket World Cup before, won the first two editions of the tournament.

The competition for the last two spots for the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 is now between four teams — Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Scotland, and the Netherlands.