da stake casino： By the late sixties and early seventies, the great West Indian side ofthe decade had broken up, but by 1974, the rebuilding process had beencompleted, and it was a strong and confident side that came to Indiaduring the winter
Partab Ramchand18-Oct-2002By the late sixties and early seventies, the great West Indian side ofthe decade had broken up, but by 1974, the rebuilding process had beencompleted, and it was a strong and confident side that came to Indiaduring the winter. Clive Lloyd took over the captaincy and the sidebristled with brilliant young stroke players in Gordon Greenidge, RoyFredericks, Lawrence Rowe, Vivian Richards and Alvin Kallicharran. Inaddition, they had fine all-rounders in Bernard Julien and Keith Boyceand a fearsome pace bowler in Andy Roberts while veteran Lance Gibbs,at 40 was still around to shoulder the spin burden.
© ICCEven as the West Indies had completed their rebuilding process, Indiawere going through a turbulent period. In England in 1974, India hadbeen routed in all three Tests and a few seamy happenings off thefield added to the already clouded atmosphere. As the team approachedthe series against the West Indies, they could not have been in aconfident frame of mind, particularly since Ajit Wadekar suddenlyannounced his retirement and the Indian Cricket Board slapped a oneTest ban on Bishen Bedi for airing controversial views during anunauthorised TV interview in England.The selectors had to find a new captain and they fell back on MansurAli Khan Pataudi. But while leading India in the first Test atBangalore, which was lost by 267 runs, Pataudi was injured. Atemporary replacement had to be found for the second Test at New Delhiand the selectors’ choice was Sunil Gavaskar. But the opening batsmanwas injured in a Ranji Trophy game and this led to utter confusion asto who would lead India since the captain had not been appointed evenon the night before the commencement of the Test.Ultimately, S Venkatraghavan was chosen to lead the team on themorning of the match. But the change of captaincy did not result in achange of fortunes and India lost by an innings and 17 runs theirfifth successive defeat in the space of six months – to go two down inthe series.At this stage, interest in the series declined and a 5-0 rout waspredicted. The West Indian batsmen had made hay with Greenidge,Richards, Lloyd and Kallicharran making hundreds while Roberts withhis pace, Vanburn Holder with his cut and swing and Gibbs with his offspin had mowed down the Indian batting. There seemed a lack offighting spirit in the home team.Astonishingly, however, India won the next two Tests to draw level inthe series. And they did so without the services of Gavaskar, who wasstill on the injured list. The architect of this turn about wasGundappa Viswanath.With scores of 52 and 139 at Calcutta and 97 not out and 46 at Madras,he more than anyone else helped shaped victories by 85 runs and 100runs. The spin trio of Bedi, Prasanna and Chandrasekhar weavedpatterns around the West Indian batsmen and suddenly the visitorslooked very vulnerable. They were also timely contributions from newplayers like Madan Lal, Anshuman Gaekwad and Karsan Ghavri and thisoffset the poor form of Pataudi. But if Pataudi’s reflexes hadconsiderably slowed down – this was his last series – he displayedshrewdness and skill in his captaincy, a notable factor in India’sfightback.Predictably enough, there was tremendous interest in the decider to beplayed at the brand new Wankhede stadium in Bombay. Could Indiaemulate the feat of Australia in 1936-37 as the only side to come from0-2 down to win a five-Test series? The answer was emphaticallyanswered in the negative by the West Indies who ran up a total of 604for six declared on the third morning after a minor riot interruptedplay on the second evening. Lloyd hammered an unbeaten 242 whileFredericks got his second hundred of the series.Despite some fine batting by Gavaskar, Viswanath, Gaekwad and EknathSolkar, who posted his only Test century, India just about managed toavoid the follow on and the West Indies had plenty of time to coast tovictory by 201 runs in the decisive Test, played over six days.While the batting certainly played its part in the West Indies’triumph, the most vital role was the pace bowling of Roberts who with32 wickets, set a record for IndiaWest Indies matches. Gibbs showedthat he had lost none of his old magic in taking 21 wickets.But India too came out with flying colours, thanks principally to thebatting of Viswanath who finished with 568 runs in the series. Hestrode like a colossus, emphasised by the fact that the next highestaggregate was Farokh Engineer’s 222. The spinners, handled in adroitfashion by Pataudi, too had a major hand in India’s gallant showing.Also, the fact that all five Tests produced results in India, wherepitches were reputedly slow and heavily loaded in favour of thebatsmen, did not go unnoticed. Indeed, it was a series in which theaccent was on attack even as negative tactics were generally shunned.