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Tour of New Zealand
& West Indies 1975-76 Captain:
Bishan Bedi
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India’s fifteenth Test tour
Second Test-playing tour of New Zealand by India
Fourth Test-playing tour of West Indies by India.
(January - April
1976)
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Venkataraghaven, having led
India briefly on the fruitless 1975 World Cup campaign, saw the captaincy
taken from him and passed on to Bedi. After a shared series in New Zealand,
India was faced with the challenge of meeting the mighty West Indies team
in a four-Test series. India made a disastrous start, but Bedi rallied the team to have the best
of the drawn second Test match and win the third. Following torrential rain, the third Test
had been shifted from Georgetown to Port of Spain where the Queens Park
Oval pitch gave some assistance in turning the ball but the West Indies’
trio of spinners were unable to prevent India reaching a huge target; in
future they would rely on an all-pace attack. This victory at Port-of-Spain
was historic; India became only the second team to score 400 in the fourth
innings to win a Test match.
West Indies then
won the final Test at Kingston with India protesting that the fast bowlers
were using intimidating tactics against them. Bedi declared
his first innings closed at 306-6 in protest, and was thought to have done
the same in the second innings at 97-5 but in fact there was no-one left to
come in because five men were unable to bat because of injury.
India had come
to the Caribbean from a gentler three-Test series in New Zealand. Gavaskar
arrived late in the West Indies because of an operation for a fractured
cheekbone received in New Zealand.
Despite the
eventful Test series, West Indies Board could not entice enough spectators
through the gates to watch, and suffered a loss of approximately Ł17,000 on
the tour.
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Other Indian tours
Previous tour
England
1974
Next tour
Australia
1977-78
Next New Zealand tour
1980-81
Next West Indies tour
1982-83
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Members of the Test tour party (17)
Opening batsmen: : Sunil Gavaskar, Parthasarathy
Sharma, Dilip Vengsarkar.
Middle-order batsmen: Mohinder Amarnath, Surinder Amarnath, Anshuman Gaekwad, Brijesh Patel, Rao Sudhakar, Gundappa Viswanath.
Wicket-keepers: Syed Kirmani, Pochiah
Krishnamurthy
Spin bowlers:Bishan Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghaven.
Faster bowlers: Madan Lal, Eknath Solkar.
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M B Amarnath
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D
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N
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25
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RHB RM
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S Amarnath
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D
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N
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27
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LHB
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B S Bedi
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D
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N
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29
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SLA captain
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B S Chandrasekhar
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K
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S
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30
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LBG
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A D Gaekwad
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Ba
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W
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23
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RHB
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S M Gavaskar
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B
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W
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26
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RHB opener vice-captain
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S M H Kirmani
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K
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S
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26
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WK
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P Krishnamurthy
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Hd
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S
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28
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reserve WK
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S Madan Lal
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D
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N
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24
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RFM
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B P Patel
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K
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S
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23
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RHB
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E A S Prasanna
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K
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S
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35
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OB
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P H Sharma
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Raj
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C
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28
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RHB opener
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E D Solkar
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B
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W
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27
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LHB LFM
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R Sudhakar
Rao
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K
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S
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25
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RHB
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D B Vengsarkar
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B
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W
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19
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RHB opener
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S Venkataraghaven
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TN
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S
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30
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OB
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G R Viswanath
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K
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S
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26
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RHB
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Zonal representation
Duleep Trophy teams
C: Central (1), E: East (0), N: North (4), S:
South (8), W: West (4).
Ranji Trophy teams
Ba - Baroda (1)
B -
Bombay (3)
D - Delhi (4)
H - Hyderabad (1)
K - Karnataka (6)
Rj -
Rajasthan (1)
TN - Tamil Nadu (1)
Average age of team at time of first Test match
(24 January 1976) :
26
yrs 11
months
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Test Appearances made before the tour
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Bedi 39, Prasanna 35, Chandrasekhar 30, Venkataraghaven
28, Solkar
25, Viswanath 23,
Gavaskar 17, Patel 5,
Krishnamurthy 5, Madan Lal
4, Gaekwad
3, Sharma 2, M Amarnath
1, S Amarnath
0, Kirmani
0, Sudhakar Rao 0, Vengsarkar 0.
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Tour Officials
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P R Umrigar
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Manager
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M B Allagannan
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Treasurer
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Balu Allagannan
of Madras had been India's manager in Sri Lanka 1973-74.
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Selectors
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C D Gopinath (chairman), Jayasingh
Ghorpade,
Vijay Mehra, Pankaj Roy, Raj Singh.
They were joined by Bishan
Bedi (captain)
and Polly Umrigar (tour manager).
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Selection
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Polly
Umrigar was appointed tour manager on 10 December, and Bedi as the
skipper ten days later.
Unavailable Farokh Engineer (business reasons).
Tour Party Announced : 22 December 1975.
Not Selected :
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Time between selection and departure from India
18 days
(22 December - 9 January)
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Travel
Madras Q Auckland
Auckland Q St Vincent
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The team flew from Madras on
9 January 1976, via Sydney, to Auckland, arriving on 10 January, then to
Napier for the opening match.
After the matches in New
Zealand, they left Auckland on 22 February and flew by way of the United
States to St Vincent where they landed on 24 February for the West Indies
leg of the the tour.
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Time spent in New Zealand
43 days
(10 January - 22 February)
and in West Indies63
days (24 Feb - 28 April)
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On-tour selection committee
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Bishan Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Srinivas
Venkataraghaven,
Polly Umrigar.
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Reinforcements
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None.
Solkar did not play in New
Zealand for five weeks owing to a head injury sustained while fielding at
short-leg. Gavaskar
missed mid-tour matches after his cheek was fractured in the Wellington
Test, and during this period Venkat captained in
two matches.
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Fixtures/Results
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Napier
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Central Districts
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Won 6 w
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†Wellington
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Wellington
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Lost 9 w
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Hamilton
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Northern Districts
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Won 141 r
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AUCKLAND
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NEW ZEALAND First Test
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WON 8 w
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Dunedin
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Otago
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Drawn
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CHRISTCHURCH
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NEW ZEALAND Second Test
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DRAWN
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WELLINGTON
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NEW ZEALAND Third Test
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Lost inns 33 r
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§ Christchurch
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New Zealand (1st ODI)
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Lost 9 w
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§ Auckland
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New Zealand (2nd ODI)
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Lost 80 r
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Kingstown, St Vincent
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Windward Islands
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Drawn
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Plymouth, Montserrat
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Leeward Islands
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Drawn
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Bridgetown
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Barbados
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Lost 10 w
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BRIDGETOWN
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WEST INDIES First Test
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LOST inns 97 r
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Port of Spain
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Trinidad
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Drawn
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PORT OF SPAIN
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WEST INDIES Second Test
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DRAWN
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Georgetown
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Guyana
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Abandoned
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PORT OF SPAIN
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WEST INDIES Third Test
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WON 6 w
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Kingston
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Jamaica
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Drawn
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KINGSTON
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WEST INDIES Fourth Test
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LOST 10 w
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†not first-class
§ one-day international
Time spent in New
Zealand before First Test:
14
days
(10 - 24 January)
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Test appearances on tour
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7 - M.Amarnath, Chandrasekhar, Gavaskar, Kirmani, Madan Lal, Viswanath.
6 - Bedi, Patel.
5 - S.Amarnath, Vengsarkar.
4 - Prasanna, Venkataraghaven.
3 - Gaekwad.
2 -
1 - Sharma, Solkar.
0 -
Krishnamurthy, Sudhakar Rao.
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Highlights
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• Surinder Amarnath scored a Test century on debut (124 at
Auckland), as his father had done in 1933.
• Surinder added 204 in a second wicket partnership with
Sunil Gavaskar (116)
• Prasanna took 8 wickets for 74 runs in
the 2nd innings at Auckland to win the match.
• Syed Kirmani took six catches and a stumping in the innings
at Christchurch, equalling the Test record
• Gavaskar (156) and Brijesh
Patel (115*)
• India were set 403 runs to win at Port
of Spain. Only Australia in 1948 had reached such a target before
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Chandrasekhar took 21 wickets in the four match series (average
31.2)
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Tour Summary
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P
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W
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L
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D
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Aban
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Test Matches
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7
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2
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3
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2
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-
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Other first-class matches
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9
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2
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1
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5
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1
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ϯ Minor matches
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1
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0
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1
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0
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-
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§ One-day internationals
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2
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0
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2
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0
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-
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All Matches
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19
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4
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7
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7
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1
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Return to India
Kingston Q London Q Bombay
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On 28 April 1976 the team flew home from Norman
Manley International Airport, Kingston, via London, to Santa Cruz Airport,
Bombay.
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Time away from India
112 days
(9 January to c 30 April)
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Published accounts of the tour
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“West Indies ‘76: India’s Caribbean Adventure”
(1976) by Kishore Ehimani (Nachiketa Publications)
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Postscript
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