Dwayne and Darren Bravo, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard and Andre Russell, five titans of West Indies cricket, are playing for huge stakes in the coming weeks.

The riches of the Pakistan Super League are certainly an enticing prospect - more so, it appears, than the Cricket World Cup qualifiers in Harare, where West Indies' 50-over side will play tomorrow for the first time against United Arab Emirates.

Their absence is one of the reasons that the chances of the West Indies missing next summer’s World Cup in England - where they won the first two tournaments, in 1975 and 1979 - are very real. The qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe is cut-throat; just two of the 10 nations will qualify.

For Associate countries, accustomed to an intense schedule of tournament play in which virtually every game has huge consequences, this is standard fare. Not so for the West Indies. Until now, they qualified for each World Cup automatically, simply by dint of their Full Member status in the International Cricket Council.