LEEDS, England — He is readily recognisable by his unusually tall hat — sometimes seemingly a lone West Indian willing on the team in the stands of a cricket ground far away.

Through thick and thin, home and away, Peter Matthews has supported the regional side, missing only the odd series over the last two decades.

“I have not missed a tour in England since 1998. I’ve missed maybe one in India and one in South Africa, so I’ve been on most tours,” he told the Jamaica Observer while following the West Indies team at the World Cup in England and Wales.

“I’ve never missed a home series apart from that one match in which Brian Lara scored 375. He scored 17 centuries in the Caribbean, and I’ve seen 16. He’s scored 17 outside the Caribbean and I’ve seen maybe nine or 10.”

Trinidadian Matthews, considered a super fan because of his all-out support for the team, was in the stands throughout as the Caribbean side flattered to deceive at the 2019 50-over showpiece. West Indies won their opening game against Pakistan on May 31, but failed to secure another victory until Thursday’s 23-run beating of little-fancied Afghanistan.

Over the course of the campaign they lost six of nine games to muster five points, and were way off the pace in the race for progression to the semi-finals. Distressingly, from a West Indian standpoint they finished ninth in the 10-team league table.

It is the kind of tribulation that West Indies cricket fans have been grappling with for some time.

“This has been disappointing. I was in Ireland [for the tri-nation series] and I was not impressed with that I saw, but I had hoped I’d see better things. When they won the first game against Pakistan, I said ‘yes’, you could see something.

“With this West Indies team, for the last 10 to 15 years your blood pressure goes up at least 20 percentage points after every game. These teams over the years could put you on blood pressure pills, but we love them. At the end of every tour we say we’re over with them but we are first in the line when the new series starts,” Matthews said.

He insisted all is not lost.

“It’s a young team — I don’t want to use that as an excuse but it’s nice to see people like [former West Indies cricketers] Clive Lloyd and Joel Garner speaking to the players, because coming from fans it doesn’t go down the same as when the legends say it.

“I have hope in this team. I’ve seen West Indies win two [Twenty20] World Cups and I was at both, both the men and women. The players have to believe in themselves, not just the fans, because we are not batting or bowling,” he told the Observer.

Matthews noted that his commitment to follow the team around the globe has come at significant sacrifice.

“I’ve tried to put my kids’ education first and put that aside. I’ve told my family that the rest of my money is for me to enjoy West Indies cricket. I’ve seen other people before us do the same thing. The job now is carried on by me and others.

“As a fan you can’t be here just for winning. When we won the World Cup many people said ‘boy, you’re lucky’, but I don’t consider it like that. I consider it a small return on a very big investment, but as a fan I’ll always be here,” he said.

The obvious question lingers: How does he find time and money to spend months overseas each year riding the ebb and flow of the West Indies team?

“I’m a ground transportation provider for American Airlines and I also have one or two contracts with the government of Trinidad and Tobago. They [the businesses] can operate by themselves and I can use the phone to make sure everything is done,” he replied.