As India and West Indies gear up to play their 100th Test match, here are some incidents – good, bad, ugly, and outright ridiculous – from the long history between the nations.
The spoilsport umpire
India had not won a Test match until they hosted the West Indies in 1948/49, in Bombay, the first series between the two sides. One-down in the five-match contest, India went for the target of 361, and brought it down to six runs in seven balls with a minute and a half left.
At this point, umpire ‘Bapu’ Joshi miscalculated the number of balls and the misread the time, and took the bails off. India had to wait for another three seasons for their first win.
The accepted proposal
On the 1952/53 tour, India’s first tour of the Caribbean, the touring cricketers were celebrated by the local fans, many of whom had roots in India.
Subhash Gupte – one of the greatest Indian spinners of all time – went a step further: he approached Carol Goberdhan at the Queen’s Oval Club with the line “yours is the kind of face that I would like to see every morning at my breakfast table.” It worked. Gupte settled down with his family in Trinidad after a bizarre BCCI policy ended his career.
The winter of four captains
Few incidents reveal the extent of BCCI’s unprofessionalism to the extent of their home series of 1958/59. To cut things short, across the first four matches, India had three lost three Tests and the selectors had run through three captains – Polly Umrigar, Ghulam Ahmed, and Vinoo Mankad.
For the fifth, they recalled Hemu Adhikari, who had not played a Test match in over two years and was posted in a at Dharamsala on military duty. When Adhikari refused, the BCCI routed the request through his chief to convince him. India drew the match, Adhikari never played again, and India had two captains in their next two Test matches.
A gruesome injury
Having led India to their first series win against England, in 1961/62, Nari Contractor seemed to have helped India recover from the musical chair of captains. But on the 1962/63 tour, a vicious bouncer from Charlie Griffith fractured his skull.
He needed an emergency operation, where cricketers from both sides donated blood. He survived, but was not considered to play for India again. At 21 years 77 days, MAK Pataudi stepped in as the then youngest Test captain.
Luck, part 1: New shoes
Ajit Wadekar debuted in the Bombay Test match of 1966/67. When touring captain Garry Sobers noticed him in old, torn but ‘lucky’ shoes he asked the youngster his shoe size. When Wadekar returned home that day to find out that a “kind-hearted soul” had left him a new pair.
Wadekar was dropped after scores of eight and four, and he made a duck after he was recalled. He joked Sobers that the new shoes were bad luck. Sure enough, when Wadekar made 67 in the second innings, Sobers reminded him that perhaps it was because of the shoes.
Luck, part 2: Gavaskar in toilet
On India’s 1971 tour of the West Indies, Sobers developed the curious superstition of visiting the Indian dressing-room to touch Sunil Gavaskar, India’s record-breaking debutant, on the shoulder before every day’s play for luck.
After Sobers made 108 not out at Georgetown, 178 not out at Bridgetown, and 132 at Port of Spain, Wadekar – by now Indian captain – became aware of this. By the time Sobers came over before the last day’s play, Wadekar had hidden Gavaskar inside the dressing-room toilet.
Abid Ali bowled Sobers first ball.
“Napoleon’s troops”
Having conceded a world record 406 runs at Port of Spain, Clive Lloyd opted for a four-pronged pace attack for the decider at Kingston, setting a tone for the next two decades.
In the first innings, India declared at 306-6 against a barrage of bouncers and beamers. In the second, they were forced to close (not declare) their innings on 97-5 – for the rest of their batters were absent hurt.
At the Jamaica airport, the homebound Indian team “resembled Napoleon’s troops on the retreat from Moscow,” reported the Wisden Almanack. “A lot of them were enveloped in plasters and bandages.”
Marshall’s enemy
In 1978/79, at the peak of the Kerry Packer era, the West Indies sent a depleted squad to India. Among them was a 20-year-old Barbadian called Malcolm Marshall, who debuted in Bangalore. Marshall was leg-before for a duck, which he believed to be an outcome of close-in fielder Dilip Vengsarkar’s relentless appealing.
Marshall never forgave Vengsarkar: “He is the one cricketer I have ever disliked and the only one I have felt consistently hostile towards … I have never felt like this about an opponent, either before or since, but I will admit now that I not only wanted to get him out, I didn’t mind if I decapitated him in the process.”
Marshall admitted to have “never been more elated at a wicket” when he bounced out Vengsarkar for 94 at Antigua in 1982/83. At the World Cup that followed, he hit Vengsarkar on the jaw to rule him out of the tournament.
A tragic tale
At the same Antigua Test match, Gordon Greenidge was unbeaten on 154 after the third day’s play. But he did not take further part in the Test match, and the scorers marked him ‘retired not out.
He then flew out to Barbados, for he had to be at the bedside of his two-year-old daughter Ria, whose kidney infection had turned critical. Ria passed away two days after the Test match.
Kapil has no chill
Ahmedabad hosted its first Test match in 1983/84, when West Indies came over. The organisers appointed women to “come on to the field along with the drinks trolley” during the breaks. Indian captain Kapil Dev “ordered them off”, as a result of which, much to the dismay of Sunil Gavaskar, the cricketers were left with “the colourless bearers”.
An unthinkable stance
When the West Indies returned in 1987/88, Doordarshan, India’s only television channel, decided to not cover the Test matches – because they felt there was too much cricket. They held their stance until two days before the series before – fortunately – good sense prevailed.
Adams get a name
West Indies’s 1994/95 tour of India was promoted widely as a duel between Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. While Tendulkar got the runs, Lara had an indifferent outing, but a young Jimmy Adams more than made up for that with 520 runs in three Test matches at 173.33.
Adams used his pads to great effect to blunt the Indian spinners, led by Anil Kumble. The nickname Padams was coined during the tour.
Tendulkar asks Ganguly to leave
Chasing 120, India were bowled out for 81 in Barbados in 1997, inspiring – among other things – the name of a popular cricket podcast. After the debacle, Sourav Ganguly missed the morning run, which did not go down well with captain Tendulkar: “His face was almost purple with anger. He told me, in language that cannot be printed, that he was going to send me home and that I should sort myself out because my career could be ending.”
Sehwag falls short
No Indian had scored a hundred in the first session of a Test match until 2018, but Virender Sehwag came close at Gros Islet in 2006. He was on 98 when Corey Collymore bowled the last ball before lunch. As Sehwag’s almighty heave harmlessly rolled towards mid-off, the batters set off for an impossible run, but the direct hit was off target. Sehwag eventually made 180.
Eden gaffes
Sachin Tendulkar played his last Test series in 2013/14. His penultimate Test was at Eden Gardens, and the CAB put up a giant portrait from the High Court End. It should have been fine, but for the fact that they had spelled it “Sachine”. Worse, “Mr Anjali Tendulkar” remained on the giant scorecard for nearly half an hour until it was rectified.
