Tour of India & Pakistan 1974-75          Captain:  Clive Lloyd

Eighteenth West Indies Test tour

Fourth Test-playing tour of India by West Indies

Second Test-playing tour of Pakistan

 (November 1974 - 

                       March 1975)

India made a splendid recovery after losing the first two Test matches in the series.  With the Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi at the helm again, India beat West Indies in a home Test for the first time in the third Test at Calcutta and again, thanks to her spin bowlers, at Madras.  But with everything set up nicely for a close finish in the deciding final Test match at Bombay, West Indies annihilated the home side with a huge total headed by a double century from Lloyd. West Indies won despite a serious crowd disturbance which threatened the completion of the match.

There was crowd trouble in Pakistan by which time the West Indians were worn out by the arduous travelling and the constant cricket.  The Pakistan series failed to produce a result only because rioting cost 2½ hours, which left West Indies too little time to chase their target to win.

Gary Sobers had retired but skipper Rohan Kanhai remained available for selection. However, the selectors did not choose him and turned to the younger Clive Lloyd as the new captain.  They wrote expressing their appreciation of Kanhai’s contribution on eight previous tours.  Viv Richards was picked for his first tour despite having a career batting average only in the 20s, but scored 192 not out in his second Test appearance.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

To England 1973

Next tour

To Australia 1975-76

Next tour of India 

1978-79

Next tour of Pakistan

1980-81

Members of the Test tour party    (17)

Opening batsmen:  Gordon Greenidge, Len Baichan, Roy Fredericks.

Middle-order batsmen  Alvin Kallicharran, Clive Lloyd, Vivian Richards, Lawrence Rowe.

Wicket-keepers:David Murray, Deryck Murray

Spin bowlers  Arthur Barrett, Lance Gibbs, Albert Padmore, Elquemedo Willett.

Fast bowlers  Keith Boyce, Van Holder, Bernard Julien, Andy Roberts.

Regional representation :

  Shell Shield teams  

B - Barbados (5)

G - Guyana (5)

JA  - Jamaica (2)

L - Leeward Islands (3)

T - Trinidad & Tobago (2)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(22 November 1974) :    

     27 yrs  10 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Gibbs 66, Lloyd 36, Fredericks 32, Deryck Murray 22, Holder 16, Kallicharran 15, Boyce 12, Rowe 12, Julien 8, Barrett 4, Willett 3, Roberts 1, Baichan 0, Greenidge 0, David Murray 0, Padmore 0, Richards 0.

Tour Officials

There was no assistant manager to enable a physiotherapist to be funded

Selectors

Clyde Walcott (Chairman),  J K Holt,  Joe Solomon with the assistance of new captain Clive Lloyd, who flew over from England where he was playing county cricket.

Selection

Clive Lloyd was appointed captain on 25 May, and Gerry Alexander as manager and Deryck Murray as the vice-captain on the same day. This was a month before the tour party though the post-holders were usually named after the team was announced.

Unavailable:  Maurice Foster,  Gary Sobers.

Tour Party Announced :  20 June 1974.

Not selected :   Rohan Kanhai,  Inshan Ali,  Raphick Jumadeen.

Time between selection and departure from West Indies

 135 days

 (20 June  - 2 November)

Travel

BridgetownQ  LondonQ  Bombay

The team left the Caribbean on 2 November 1974.

They flew from London to Bombay, arriving at Santa Cruz Airport on 4 November.

For their Sri Lanka tour the team arrived at Colombo’s Katunayeke Airport (Banderanaike International Airport) on the afternoon of Saturday 1 February.  They left BIA on Wednesday 12 February, arriving at Karachi and flying on to Lahore on the same day.

Time spent in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan

   123 days

(4 November - 7 March)

On-tour selection panel

Clive Lloyd,  Deryck Murray,  Lance Gibbs,  Gerry Alexander (manager).

Reinforcements

None.  Lawrence Rowe played two matches before difficulties with his eyesight forced him to leave the tour. He left Bombay on 29 December after a series of eye tests and flew to London to have contact lenses fitted. Before the tour was over, he was able to take practice again back home. "He complained of problems with his eyes.  An optician in Poona was unable to diagnose the cause and Rowe struggled on. Opticians eventually told him that one eye was short sighted and he flew to London immediately in a bid to get some specialist advice. There they told him not to go back to the tour and the decision was made not to replace him."  [Gordon Greenidge Man in the Middle]

Keeping wicket in the dying stages of the Fifth Test, Greenidge hurt his back which  kept him out of all but one match of the remaining five weeks.

Fixtures/Results

§  ODI

ϯnot first-class

Time spent in India before First Test:   18 days

(4 November - 22 November)

Time from end of final Test until departure from Pakistan      1 day

(6 March - 7 March )

.

Test appearances on tour

7  -  Fredericks, Gibbs,  Kallicharran,  Lloyd,  Deryck Murray,  Roberts,  Richards

6  -  Holder,  Julien

5  -  Boyce,  Greenidge

4  -

2 -   Baichan,  Barrett,  Willett

0 -   David Murray,  Padmore,  Rowe.

Highlights

•  Greenidge scored 93 and 107 on his Test debut (at Bangalore) and later in Pakistan Len Baichan scored 105* on his first Test appearance (at Lahore).

•  Viv Richards first Test century (192 at Delhi) including six sixes came on his 2nd Test appearance.

•  Andy Roberts took 32 wickets, the record in the series until 1983-84, including 7-64 at Madras.

•  Gibbs took 7 for 98 in India's first innings at Bombay.

•  Roy Fredericks scored 100 at Calcutta and 104 at Bombay, but this record was overshadowed by Clive Lloyd who scored 163 at Bangalore and 242 * at Delhi:  a total of 636 runs in the five-Test series.

Tour Summary

Return to West Indies

KarachiQ  LondonQ  Bridgetown

The team left Karachi on 7 March 1975, flying from Karachi to London. 

Most of the players went home by way of the route to Seawell Airport, Barbados, but Barrett arrived at Norman Manley Airport, Jamaica, on 9 March and manager Alexander arrived there on 11 March. He had spent a few days in London tying up the loose ends of the tour.

Time away from West Indies

  127 days 

 (2 November -  9 March)

Finances

Published accounts of the tour

"India vs West Indies"   Sunder Rajan  [Jaico Publisher, 1975]

Postscript

This tour saw the emergence of key players in the great West Indian sides of the ‘seventies and ‘eighties.