|
Test Cricket Tours - India to West
Indies 1970-71
|
Tour of West Indies
1970-71 Captain: Ajit Wadekar
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
India’s twelfth Test tour
Third official Test-playing tour of West Indies by India
(February – April
1971)
|
This was only the second (out of twelve) Test tours
to date on which India had won a Test series, the other occasion being in
New Zealand in 1967-68. It was also
the first time that India had won a Test match against West Indies after 24
attempts, and started India on her hat-trick of series wins (1970-71, 1971,
1972-73).
Veteran selector Dutta Ray, unwell with high blood
pressure, was forced to miss the meeting that appointed the tour
captain. After the decision not to
appoint Chandu Borde as
captain because of his lack of form and fitness, Merchant used his casting
vote to discard 'Tiger' Pataudi and appoint Ajit Wadekar to lead the
side.
To the disappointment of many commentators,
Chandrasekhar was left out of the tour party while Engineer and Surti were not considered because of a ruling that they
must have played during the season's Ranji Trophy
competition.
India’s
victory owed an enormous debt to Sunil Gavaskar's
spectacular record-breaking achievements, among them topping 1000 runs on
tour. He received exceptional support from Solkar
and Sardesai. When Wadekar
was asked what he attributed the vistory to, he
replied: "We had good fun. We played like a team. Proper planning, strategy,
the psychological battle being won by us, the batting feats of Sardesai and Gavaskar and,
not to forget, the brilliant fielding."
(Rediff interview April 18, 2002)
The Indians were the first Test touring team from
any country to visit Dominica.
The team planned to visit Canada for a week (the
last week in April) after the West Indian tour and go to Washington and Philadelphia
to play Indian student teams but these extra visits fell through.
|
Other Indian tours
Previous tours
New
Zealand 1967-68
Next tour
England 1971
Next West Indies tour
1975-76
|
|
|
Members of the Test tour
party (16)
Opening batsmen: Sunil Gavaskar, Kenia Jayantilal
Middle-order batsmen: Ajit Wadekar,
Dilip Sardesai, Ashok
Mankad, Gundappa Viswanath,
ML Jaisimha
Wicket-keepers:Pochiah Krishnamurthy, Rusi Jeejeebhoy
Spinners: Bishan
Bedi, Saleem Durani, Erapalli Prasanna,
Srinivas Venkataraghaven
Fast bowlers: Abid Ali, Dev Govindraj, Eknath Solkar
|
S Abid
Ali
|
Hd / S
|
29
|
RM
|
|
B S Bedi
|
D / N
|
24
|
SLA
|
|
S A Durani
|
Raj / C
|
36
|
SLA
|
|
S M Gavaskar
|
B / W
|
21
|
RHB opener
|
|
D D
Govindraj
|
Hd / S
|
24
|
RFM
|
|
M L Jaisimha
|
Hd / S
|
31
|
RHB RM
|
|
H K Jayantilal
|
Hd / S
|
31
|
RHB opener
|
|
R A Jeejeebhoy
|
Bn / E
|
28
|
reserve WK
|
|
P Krishnamurthy
|
Hd / S
|
23
|
WK
|
|
A V Mankad
|
B / W
|
24
|
RHB
|
|
E A S Prasanna
|
My / S
|
30
|
OB
|
|
D N Sardesai
|
B / W
|
30
|
RHB
|
|
E D Solkar
|
B / W
|
22
|
LM
|
|
S Venkataraghaven
|
TN / S
|
24
|
OB vice-captain
|
|
G R Viswanath
|
My / S
|
22
|
RHB
|
|
A L Wadekar
|
B / W
|
29
|
RHB captain
|
|
|
Zonal representation
Duleep Trophy teams
C: Central (1), E: East (3), N: North (2), S:
South (5), W: West (5)
Ranji Trophy teams
Bn - Bengal (1)
B - Bombay (5)
D - Delhi
(1)
Hd -
Hyderabad (5)
Ms – Madras (1)
My – Mysore (1)
Raj - Rajasthan (1)
TN - Tamil Nadu (1)
In 1969 Madras State was
renamed Tamil Nadu
Average age of team at time of
first Test match
(19 February 1971):
26 yrs 9
months.
|
|
|
Test Appearances made before the tour
|
Jaisimha 36, Durani 23,
Prasanna 22, Wadekar 21, Sardesai 21, Bedi 19, Venkat 14, Abid Ali 12,
Mankad 7, Solkar
5, Viswanath
4, Gavaskar
0, Govindraj
0, Jayantilal
0, Jeejeebhoy
0, Krishnamurthy 0.
|
|
|
|
Tour Officials
|
Keki K Tarapor
|
Tour Manager
|
Subhash P Gupte
|
Liaison Officer
|
|
|
|
|
Selectors
|
Vijay Merchant (chairman), Bal Dani,
M Dutta Ray, C D Gopinath, M M Jagdale, with Ajit Wadekar included
|
|
|
|
Selection
|
While Bal Dani urged a change from Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi as captain after 36 Tests in charge, Dutta Ray,
Gopinath and Jagdale favoured
retaining him. The Chairman backed Ajit Wadekar as skipper instead. Dutta Ray missed the vital
meeting at the Brabourne Stadium on 8 January so
the vote was 2-1, but Merchant used his casting vote to ensure that Wadekar was appointed skipper.
The team was chosen at a subsequent meeting in Bombay on 12
January and was announced the next day in Madras, after approval by the
Indian Board. Wadekar
insisted on the inclusion of Dilip Sardesai and he scored a double century in the first
Test and two other hundreds.
Unavailable: The Nawab of Pataudi (Hd), 30, once he was not selected as captain. He said
on the day that the captaincy was settled, he
would be entering politics and contesting Haryana in the elections.
Rusi Surti, 34, was playing for Queensland
and Farokh Engineer, 32, had made his home in
Lancashire, so they were unable to play in the Ranji
Trophy tournament, and therefore deemed not eligible.
Tour Party Announced : 13 January
1971
Not selected : Bhagwat S Chandrasekhar,
Farokh Engineer, Rusi Surti, Syed M H Kirmani.
Jaisimha's selection was a surprise, the result of scoring two big
centuries in the Duleep Trophy. He scored few
runs but gave invaluable counsel on the field to Wadekar
|
Time between selection and departure from India
19 days
(13 January - 1
February)
|
|
|
Travel
Bombay Q London Q New York Q Kingston
|
Having convened at Bombay
on 24 January, the team had a week's practice under Sardesai's
supervision. They flew out of Santa Cruz
Airport, Bombay, on 1 February, by way of London and New York. Gavaskar needed to have a septic finger injury lanced
at J F K Airport and was unable to play for a fortnight. The plane left
London Heathrow two hours late and the team missed its connecting flight
from New York. They landed at Palisados Airport
in Kingston, Jamaica,
on 3 February rather than the evening before. Their equipment had not yet arrived,
however, so they had to miss a day's practice.
|
Time spent in West Indies
77 days
(3 February - 21 April)
|
|
|
On-tour selection committee
|
Wadekar (captain),
Venkataraghaven (vice-captain), Tarapor (manager).
This group co-opted Jaisimha, Sardesai and
Durani.
|
|
|
|
Reinforcements
|
None. Despite Gavaskar's
indisposition, and that of Viswanath
- who later had to be drafted into the side for the Third Test because
Prasanna was injured - the team got by without reinforcements.
|
|
|
|
Fixtures/Results
|
a
|
Kingston
|
Jamaica
|
Drawn
|
b
|
Montego Bay
|
Board President's XI
|
Drawn
|
c
|
†Kingston
|
University of West Indies
|
Won 101 r
|
d
|
KINGSTON
|
WEST INDIES First Test
|
DRAWN
|
e
|
Basseterre, St Kitts
|
Leeward Islands
|
Won 9 w
|
f
|
Pointe-a-Pierre
|
Trinidad
|
Drawn
|
g
|
PORT-OF-SPAIN
|
WEST INDIES Second Test
|
WON 7 w
|
h
|
Georgetown
|
Guyana
|
Drawn
|
i
|
GEORGETOWN
|
WEST INDIES Third Test
|
DRAWN
|
j
|
Bridgetown
|
Barbados
|
Lost 9 w
|
k
|
BRIDGETOWN
|
WEST INDIES Fourth Test
|
DRAWN
|
l
|
Roseau, Dominica
|
Windward Islands
|
Drawn
|
m
|
PORT-OF-SPAIN
|
WEST INDIES Fifth Test
|
DRAWN
|
|
†not first-class
.
Time spent in West
Indies before First Test:
16 days
(3
- 19 February)
|
|
|
Test appearances on tour
|
5 - Abid Ali, Bedi, Krishnamurthy, Sardesai,
Solkar, Venkat, Wadekar.
4 - Gavaskar.
3 - Durani, Jaisimha, Mankad, Prasanna,Viswanath.
2 -
1 - Jayantilal.
0 - Govindraj, Jeejeebhoy.
|
|
|
|
Highlights
|
• Gavaskar's prodigious
batting displays saw him score 774 runs in eight Test innings at a
Bradman-like average of 154.80. Gavaskar made two
fifties on his debut when India won the second Test. He added centuries in
each of the next two Tests and then played innings of 124 and 220 in the
final Test.
• Sardesai
struck three centuries, including 112 in the victory at Port-of-Spain. Earlier he had rescued India from 75 for
5 with a double century that made West Indies follow on in the first Test.
Adding a further century at Bridgetown, he aggregated 640 runs for the
series.
• India gained a first Test victory over
West Indies after trying for 24 matches.
• Venkataraghaven
was India’s highest wicket-taker, with 22, in a series against
the West Indies.
|
|
|
|
Tour Summary
|
|
P
|
W
|
L
|
D
|
Aban
|
Test Matches
|
5
|
1
|
0
|
4
|
-
|
Other first-class matches
|
7
|
1
|
1
|
5
|
-
|
ϯ Minor matches
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
0
|
-
|
All Matches
|
13
|
3
|
1
|
9
|
-
|
|
|
|
|
Return to India
Port of SpainQ Bombay
|
The team relaxed for a day on Tobago, then caught
the 8 am Sunjet flight for New York on 21
April. Wadekar
flew direct from London where he met the others on their arrival in New
Delhi. The whole squad flew home to
a jubilant welcome in Bombay.
|
Time away from India
81 (?) days
(1 February - 23?? April)
|
|
|
Finances
|
|
|
|
|
Published accounts of the tour
|
"India vs West Indies " (1971)
by Sundur Rajan [Jaico
Publishing House]
"Gone with the Indians" (1974)? by Brunell Jones
[pub Sport/News Service].
|
|
|
|
Postscript
|
|
|
|
Powered by Create
|