1. West Indian Calypso & Indian Bhajans
Ram Prasad, July 20 2016
The onset of India’s tour to West Indies is some what turning out to be luke warm, since India is
yet to come out of its April World Cup winning hang over. If it was - 1970’s and 80’s and even as
late as 1990’s, tour to West Indies , would have been the cynosure for all journalists. Names like
Rajan Bala, K N Prabhu, R Mohan, K P Mohan, Vijay Lokapally (now presently it is Sharada
Ugra) were household Indian names and they were the rshis of bygone era, who were incisive in
their comments, in depth in their analysis, forthright in their predictions. Such was the tour even
foreign cricket correspondents of yore like- Adrian Murray, Patrick Eagar, the late and elegant
Tony Cozier and ebullient Christopher Martin Jenkins, covered the West Indian Calypso with
much grit and gusto. With cricket certainly in the twilight in the Caribbean islands, cricketing
calypso is now a part of history to be researched by Oxfordian Mike Atherton (the venerable
English Captain) and now famous columnist who troubles headlines in Sydney Morning Herald
like Peter Roebuck, like he troubles with forthright columns in THE HINDU.
Indo- West Indian Connection
Though this series is not evoking the same response as it did during the early 1970s to mid
1980s, as cricket has waned in the West Indian islands, certainly none can leave the nostalgic
moments of yesteryear, especially with West Indians, when they were numero uno team during
Sobers era of mid 1960s to Clive Lloyd’s era till early 1990s.
The Indo- West Indian connection deemed to have started with Christopher Columbus, whose
intention was to explore India and Far East, but landed in West Indies, dating back to 15
th
century, 1492 to be precise. Hence the relations with West Indies, in terms of trade, cultural
engagement, and cricketing ties runs close to more than five centuries. The entertainment
quotient was never to be missed. And none of my grandfather’s generation could forget the days
of Everton Weeks in 1948 when Win dies toured for India first time, who scored a continuous four
century before getting run out in 90’s to what would have been a fifth century in 1948.
Names like Noble Laureate Vidhiadhar Naipaul, Rohan Babulal Kanhai,Alvin Kallicharan,
Ramesh Naresh Sarwan and Shivnarine Chanderpaul have been the potpourri of melting of
Indo-West Indian connection..
India’s tryst with Calypso
India’s tryst with Calypso began by West Indies visited India as early as 1948 and this series was
settled in favor of the visitors who sealed the rubber by a brilliant knocks from Everton Weeks

2. who went on to create a world record of four consecutive centuries ( and that record was equaled
after five decades by Sri Lankan Marvan Attapattu) and became an enthralling part of the famous
sobriquet- 3 W’S of West Indian cricket- Weeks, Walcott and Worrell. Walcott went on to become
the chairman of ICC and Worrell became the greatest – gentleman captain of the history of the
game. None of the cricketing cynosures will forget the famous test series captained by Sir Frank
Worrell and Richie Benaud of 1960’s; in the famous tie series of Brisbane, Woollengabba, or
Gabba, labeled as greatest test series of all time by Wisden.
If 1950’s were the era of gentlemanliness- 1960’s had its share of history, by India appointing
27 year young Parsi – Nari Contractor to the lead the team to West Indies, and much to the
delight and chagrin, that was the last series for Nari Contractor who was hit, in his thinking
cap- skull by Charlie Griffith’s beamer.
Sobers Era of 1966-
Much to the delight of entertainment to the game, Sobers was the captain which toured India in
1966 and it had the likes of – Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd and Lance Gibbs. Sobers
entertainment was not only on the field, off the field he had the famous Anju Mahendro
romance, still talked about…. That series also saw the emergence of Clive Lloyd who went on
to hammer the double century 242* and become first centurion in the newly created venue of
Wankhede Stadium, Bombay, the Mecca of Indian cricket.
Sunny Gavaskar @1971
Then came the famous aradhana era of ( Rajesh Khanna) of Indian cricket, the emergence two
diminutive batsman – the emergence of Sunil Manohar Gavaskar and Gundappa Ranganath
Vishvanth. Sunny with rhapsody of cover drives and on-drives created a Bradmansque record of
774 runs in his debut series of 4 tests and averaging a whopping, 154.00 and established one of
the acclaimed master’s of the game. Sunny eventually continued his honeymoon with Windies
quick throughout his era and scored highest number of centuries against Windies, which none of
the game’s inventors have dared to touch upon, the English and Aussies, and he scored 13 of
them in his total of 34, and even the record breaking 30
th
century came against them @ Chepauk
Chennai( I certainly don’t know how history and Chepauk they go together it seems... dating from
Vinoo Mankad’s winning over against New Zealand in 1952)

3. If Gavaskar was known to be rock-solid defensive batsman akin to investing in Indian Bond
Markets -yielding a constant 10% then equities part of gyrations of upswings and downswings of
Stock Markets should go to Gundappa Vishvanath, known for entertainer par excellence and
who can forget the famous the 1974 January, Chepauk test series which was won by Vishvanath
single-handedly scoring 97* and being rated amongst the ten best knocks of all time test cricket
and included as non-centurion and ending on winning cause, to be covered by the coveted
Wisden.
Halt at Port of Spain @1976
Indian cricketing histrionics to Caribbean cant be without the epic/ epoch winning run chase at
Trinidad& Tobago test of 1976. Set to chase 403, India romped home 406- 4, thanks to the
centuries from Anshuman Gaikwad, Mohinder Amarnath and Gundappa Vishvanath a record
which was was broken by West Indies in their huge run chase with Lara encrypting the victory
against Aussies in 2003.
Mohinder Amarnath deserves a special credit in West Indian lexicon. As one of the prime
architects in the Caribbean engagement of 1983, was rated by Imran Khan to be the best
batsman to face the hostile and fiery fast bowling of West Indies. Mohinder scored more than 500
odd runs in the five test series, which paved the way for latter day winning in the English summer
of on June 23, 1983 at Lords, by beating West Indies in the Prudential Cup final at Lords by by
43 runs and romping the home the victory…
Lloyd & his 4 man army
After the bludgeoning tour to Down Under Australia in 1975-76, and being ripped apart by the
fiery fast bowlers of Lillie,& Thomson and equally outwitted by Ian Chappell’s captaincy, West
Indies were down and out by 5-1, much to the consternation of global audience, where the fight
was missing. Even Vivian Richards was mentally dressed down and need to consult sports-
psychologist to internalize his self-belief and self –confidence. Now, West Indies developed, their
own prescriptions to the modern day batsman, by targeting the rib cage, lungs and if not the
head. Most of the battles were a mental dressing down, for most of the plot was over in the
dressing room, before the ball being bowled. Such was the devastation caused, and no wonder
nightmare caused considerable awe and respect especially when they were off the field. To
invoke the names of -Holding/ Marshall/ Garner and Roberts and, who between them were
individually capable of taking 500 crickets apiece, tallied at 900 wickets among them and won
almost all the series single handedly, battling out the opposition through their bowling spells.

4. This was certainly the apogee of West Indian cricket, which was at its altar by - winning the
Prudential Cup 75, 79 and runners in 83.
If bowlers created havoc in the field then there was one Zen master with his swashbuckling
genius - named Vivian Richards-.True to his true to his initials ( IVA- Isaac Vivian Alexander
Richards) he was like Alexander the Great, sorry Richards the Great, looked batting so easy.
the batting was made look so easy and there was certainly an air of - ARROGANCE, in his
approach and style, such was the audacity he carried throughout his cricketing years.
Lara & Tendulkar era
If 1990’s were the fading moments of West Indian cricket, then the genius of Lara and run
machine of Tendulkar can’t be left out…. Lara went on to score 12,000 odd runs and twice scoring
over 365runs of Sir Garefield Sobers, by making the highest run scorer in Test Matches with his
400* not out against Englishman, once again at St John’s Antigua, in 2004…. and also held the
first class record of 501* for Warwickshire against Durham, in the English summer of July 1994.
If Lara made his debut in the winter of 1990, against Pakistan, exactly a year ago, in the winter of
1989, Tendulkar, faced his baptism in test of fire by facing- Waqar, Wasim and Imran in his debut
series. Cricket emerged victorious and bowlers were their Victims!
I have missed out the series of 1997/ for variety of reasons, though the reasons are obvious and
visible, India could not chase a paltry score of 120 runs in the infamous Barbados test due to
some hostile bowling from Curtly Ambrose, Walsh, Ian Bishop and Frankyn Rose. With VVS
Laxman only registering a double digit score of 17 and next was Mr Extras with 9, the series still
rankles Tendulkar to this day…. a test and series were lost by 39 runs, after dominating for 95% of
the series in batting and bowling.
Circa 2002
India did well compared to 1997 and Indians were building under the guidance of John Wright
and who can forget the jaw breaking Kumble taking up 6 wickets in India’s win in the Port of
Spain test and India registering a win in close to two decades, thanks to Saurav Ganguly, who
perfected the art of winning test matches abroad apart from sub continental dust bowl pitches….
Diplomatic Entourage of 2006
With losing the series against Pakistan in the early 2006, India set foot for the series with
Tendulkar being in MIA- Missing in Action! Dravid with his company of VVS/ Saurav/ Kaif/

5. Sreesanth, was able to win the final test at Sabina Park, Guyana and win the series for first time
in three decades, the last time they did the same thing was under Ajit Wadekar famous twin
series win of England and West Indies in 1971, what was dubbed as Sunil Gavaskar’s series of
1971….
Conclusion
Then what pushes the Indo-West Indies series of 2016? Simple, - it’s fun, frolic and enjoyment
with a mugga of beer… is the sound I hear from the background. Certainly, to the cricketing
connoisseurs Test Cricket is the mother of cricket, which not only explores creative genius of -
individuals but also tests the temperament, tenacity and technicality of individuals to explore the
uncharted territories and emerge victorious, is the essence of - what sports and life it was
teaches about.