Tour of India 1978-79              Captain: Alvin Kallicharran

22nd official Test tour

Third Test-playing tours of India by West Indies

 (November 1978 -

                March 1979)

The West Indies authorities were at first the only cricket board prepared to pick their 'Packer' players for Test Matches. This all changed when the players who had signed to play in the 1978-79 season in Australia did not make themselves available for West Indies' fifth tour of India. Before Packer could respond with his proposals to enable them to join the tour, the West Indies Cricket Board ruled out some twenty of their best cricketers and went ahead with those who were available.

Alvin Kallicharran, the only major player not to commit to playing World Series Cricket, was made captain. Most of the players, solid performers in the Shell Shield, would not have expected to get near to the Test team. With every one of West Indies' top forty players out of the Caribbean, the Shell Shield was put back until March.

When the West Indies Board later announced it would consider World Series Cricket contracted plavers for the Prudential World Cup in England in June 1979, members of this tour party expressed their "displeasure and dissatisfaction" and said the tour was in jeopardy - after all, they were keeping the West Indies flag flying.

It was India's first six-Test series, and the home country won the only Test match to reach a conclusion. India (and notably Sunil Gavaskar) held the upper hand after the first Test was narrowly drawn with West Indies complaining about partial umpiring. Although there were five drawn matches, this does not disclose India's supremacy. West Indies were saved from defeat in one Test by the threat of crowd disturbances and in another by bad light. India had beaten West Indies only once before, in the 1970-71 series.

The last day of the second Test match at Bangalore was abandoned due to violent disturbances following the jailing of Indira Gandhi.

Other West Indies tours

Previous tour

England 1976

Next tour

Australia 1979-80

Next tour of India

1983-84

Members of the Test tour party  (17)

Openers  Alvin Greenidge, Faoud Bacchus, Basil Williams

Batsmen  Alvin Kallicharran, Larry Gomes, Herbert Chang, Sew Shivnarine.

Wicket-keepers  David Murray, Randall Lyon

Spin bowlers  Errol Brown, Raphick Jumadeen, Derick Parry

Fast bowlers  Sylvester Clarke, Norbert Phillip, Vanburn Holder, Malcolm Marshall.

Representation of teams:   

B -  Barbados (5)

G - Guyana (3)

J -  Jamaica (3)

L  -  Leeward Islands (1)

T  - Trinidad & Tobago (3)

W  -  Windward islands (1)

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(1 December 1978) : 27 yrs  9 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Kallicharran 45, Holder 36,  Jumadeen 10,  Gomes 5,  Parry 5,  Murray 3,  Phillip 3,  Shivnarine 3,  Williams 3,  Bacchus 2,  Greenidge 2,  Clarke 1,  Brown 0,  Chang 0,  Lyon 0,  Marshall 0.

Team Officials

Ramcharitvar Rickhi, secretary of the West Indies' Umpires Union, made the tour at his own expense and assisted the team.

Selectors

M C Carew  (chairman),  C L Walcott,  J K C Holt met at the Holiday Inn in Port of Spain.

Alvin Kallicharran was named as captain on 12 August and helped pick the remainder of the team.

Selection

Unavailable: Most of the leading West Indies players were already committed to World Series Cricket in Australia. They had been asked to declare their availability by 23 March.  It was announced on 3 August that none of them would be included.

The first seven players (Kallicharran, Holder, Gomes, Alvin Greenidge, Parry, Phillip and Williams) who formed the heart of the team were announced on 4 April.  The West Indies Board ensured that they would sign a tour contract before the World Series Cricket organisation could sign them up.

On 1 May it was decided to pick the next nine names later as a strike by airline staff prevented the Chairman of Selectors, Joey Carew, from getting a flight to Kingston, Jamaica, to join the rest of the panel.

Tour Party Announced:   14 August 1978.

Not selected :  Irving Shillingford, Victor Eddy and Sheldon Gomes.

Travel

The team flew from Barbados on 8 November 1978.  After a three-day stopover in London, staying at a hotel in Lancaster Gate, they landed in Bombay on 13 November. The manager preferred to answer all WSC-related questions at a later press conference, once refreshed.

On-tour selection committee

Kallicharran,  Holder,  Solomon.

Reinforcements

None

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

.

Test appearances on tour

6  -  Bacchus,  Gomes,  Holder,  Kallicharran,  Murray,  Parry,  Phillip, 

5  -  Clarke,  Shivnarine

4  -  Greenidge,  Williams

3  -  Marshall

2  -  Jumadeen

1  -  Chang

0  -  Brown,  Lyon.

Highlights

•   Kallicharran’s 187 in the first Test at Bombay was his highest Test score.

•   West Indies last pair saved the third Test when an appeal against the light was upheld with only eleven deliveries remaining.  The crowd threw missiles as they dashed off the pitch.

•   Faoud Bacchus, having made 96 in the 2nd Test, scored his first Test century at Kanpur - a massive 250.

•   Kallicharran (98) and Gomes (91) also made nineties. Basil Williams (111) was the only other centurion.

•   The pitches were so lifeless that Norbert Phillip topped West Indies’ averages with 15 wickets @ 31.

Tour Summary

Return to West Indies

After the Sri Lankan section of the tour, the team flew out of Banderanaike International Airport on 26 February, via Madras, to Bombay and then to London.

Kallicharran remained in England.  The manager Joe Solomon and all the players arrived at Seawell Airport on 3 March. Solomon, Lloyd Ali, Shivnarine and Bacchus flew on to Georgetown the next day.

Holder announced his retirement from Test cricket.

Finances

Published accounts of the tour