Tour of England 1974       Captain: Ajit Wadekar

India’s fourteenth Test tour

Eighth Test-playing tour of England by India

 (April - July 1974)

After winning their last two series against England, India crashed to a painful 3-0 defeat, finding that English conditions pitilessly exposed the shortcomings of a team that relied too heavily on its four world-class spin bowlers. While the chilly, wet weather acted against their spin bowling strength, they did not have fast-medium bowlers of the calibre that England had to take advantage of the seaming pitches. Halfway through the tour the Indians seemed resigned to defeat and gave an inept display in the Tests.

When the weather improved it was England who benefitted at Lord's with their highest innings score since the Second World War while India, following-on in reply, were dismissed for 42, their lowest total in any Test match

Off the field there was a lack of unity.  The squad became involved in a public row when they were told they would not be admitted for arriving late at a High Commission reception. Later a member of the team was arrested for shoplifting.

Wadekar was retained as captain after an indifferent season in India. He had to accept responsibility for the defeat but the whole team became apprehensive about the reception they would face on returning home and returned in separate groups by different routes.

An investigative committee, set up on 20 August, decided in December not to distribute any bonus payments to members of the team.  By then Wadekar had resolved to retire from the first-class game and Pataudi regained the Test captaincy.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

England 1971

Next tour

New Zealand 1975-76

Next tour of England

1979

Members of the Test tour  party  (16)

Opening batsmen: Gopal Bose, Sunil Gavaskar, Sudhir Naik.

Middle-order batsmen: Ajit Wadekar, Ashok Mankad, Brijesh Patel,  Gundappa Viswanath

Wicket-keepers:Farokh Engineer, Syed Kirmani

Spinners:  Bishan Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Srinivas Venkataraghaven

Fast bowlers:Abid Ali, Eknath Solkar, Madan Lal.

Zonal representation

 Duleep Trophy teams

C: Central (0), E: East (1), N: North (2), S: South (7), W: West (6)

 Ranji Trophy teams

Ba - Bengal (1)

B  -  Bombay  (6)

D   - Delhi (2)

H   - Hyderabad (1)

K    - Karnataka (5)

TN -  Tamil Nadu (1)

Mysore State was renamed Karnataka in 1973

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(6 June 1974) :

 28 yrs  2 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Engineer 38, Wadekar 34, Bedi 32, Prasanna 28, Abid Ali 24, Chandrasekhar 24, Venkataraghaven 24, Solkar 18, Viswanath 15, Mankad 13, Gavaskar 12, Bose 0, Kirmani 0, Madan Lal 0, Naik 0, Patel 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Ajit Wadekar was confirmed as captain on 25 March and joined the panel of  C.D.Gopinath (chairman),  Hemu Adhikari,  Raj Singh and  Dattu Phadkar,which met at Jaipur.

Selection

The appointment of tour manager Colonel Adhikari  was announced on 29 December 1973.

Unavailable:  Dilip Sardesai had retired. Wadekar asked Nawab of Pataudi to tour because he had experience of playing county cricket in England but he declined.

Tour Party Announced : 27 March 1974.

It was confirmed on 10 April that Engineer would be a full member of the tour party. The English counties cooperated by releasing the three professionals, Bedi, Engineer and Venkat, for the whole tour.

Not Selected : P M Salgaonkar (Maharashtra)

Time between selection and departure from India

  19 days

 (27 March - 15 April)

Travel

Bombay  Q   London

The team flew out of Bombay on 15 April 1974, arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport the next day,16 April 1974.           

Engineer did not travel with the team but joined them from his home in Lancashire once his torn ankle ligament injury had healed.

Time spent in England

   92 days

(16 April- 17 July)

On-tour selection committee

Ajit Wadekar  (captain),  Hemu Adhikari (manager),  Srinivas Venkataraghaven

Reinforcements

None, although Chandrasekhar was unable to play for the last month of the tour. He injured a thumb in the Second Test which put an end to his tour appearances.  Salgaonkar, a fast bowler from Bombay, was available. He was on a three -month coaching course at Alf Gover's cricket school and had previously made a successful tour of Sri Lanka.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

§  one-day international

Time spent in England before First Test:

 51 days

(16 April - 6 June)

Test appearances on tour

3 -  Abid Ali, Bedi, Engineer, Gavaskar, Solkar, Viswanath, Wadekar.

2 -  Chandrasekhar, Madan Lal, Patel, Prasanna, Venkataraghaven.

1 -  Mankad, Naik

0 -  Bose, Kirmani.

Highlights

•   

•    At  Old Trafford Sunil Gavaskar scored 101 and 58.

•    India were dismissed for 42 in the Lord’s Test, their lowest total in Test cricket.

Tour Summary

Return to India

London  Q  

The team departed from Heathrow Airport, London, on Wednesday 17 July.

Bedi, Engineer and Venkataraghaven returned to their English county sides. Abid Ali remained in England with his brothers.  Patel went to the United States, and Wadekar and his wife to Europe for a month's holiday. The manager went to Lusaka in Africa for a coaching appointment.

Time away from India

  93 days  

(15 April to 17 July)

Finances

Globtik Tankers awarded England £1800 for winning the Test series while the Indians got £600.

Accounts of the tour

Postscript

The fickle Indian fans,wildly enthusiastic in 1971, now demonstrated their disapproval of the team on arriving back in Bombay,  The media reported that they hounded and abused the players, stoned Wadekar’s house (which Wadekar said was untrue because he lived in a 4^th floor flat), and painted black the huge cricket bat at Indore symbolising India’s 1971 triumph. Wadekar soon gave up cricket, although he potentially had years of cricket left in him.