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Test Cricket Tours - India to New Zealand & West Indies 1975-76

 

 

Tour of New Zealand & West Indies 1975-76      Captain: Bishan Bedi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

India’s fifteenth Test tour

 

Second Test-playing tour of New Zealand by India

 

Fourth Test-playing tour of West Indies by India.

 

 

 

 (January - April 1976)

 

 

Venkataraghaven, having led India briefly on the fruitless 1975 World Cup campaign, saw the captaincy taken from him and passed on to Bedi.  After a shared series in New Zealand, India was faced with the challenge of meeting the mighty West Indies team in a four-Test series. India made a disastrous start, but Bedi rallied the team to have the best of the drawn second Test match and win the third.  Following torrential rain, the third Test had been shifted from Georgetown to Port of Spain where the Queens Park Oval pitch gave some assistance in turning the ball but the West Indies’ trio of spinners were unable to prevent India reaching a huge target; in future they would rely on an all-pace attack. This victory at Port-of-Spain was historic; India became only the second team to score 400 in the fourth innings to win a Test match.

West Indies then won the final Test at Kingston with India protesting that the fast bowlers were using intimidating tactics against them.  Bedi declared his first innings closed at 306-6 in protest, and was thought to have done the same in the second innings at 97-5 but in fact there was no-one left to come in because five men were unable to bat because of injury.

India had come to the Caribbean from a gentler three-Test series in New Zealand.  Gavaskar arrived late in the West Indies because of an operation for a fractured cheekbone received in New Zealand.

Despite the eventful Test series, West Indies Board could not entice enough spectators through the gates to watch, and suffered a loss of approximately £17,000 on the tour.

 

 

Other Indian tours

 

 

Previous tour

England 1974

 

Next tour

Australia 1977-78

 

 

Next New Zealand tour

1980-81

 
 
 

Next West Indies tour

1982-83

 

 

 

 

 

Members of the Test tour party (17)

 

 

Opening batsmen: : Sunil Gavaskar, Parthasarathy Sharma, Dilip Vengsarkar.

Middle-order batsmen: Mohinder Amarnath, Surinder Amarnath, Anshuman Gaekwad, Brijesh Patel, Rao Sudhakar, Gundappa Viswanath.

Wicket-keepers: Syed Kirmani, Pochiah Krishnamurthy

Spin bowlers:Bishan Bedi, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghaven.

Faster bowlers: Madan Lal, Eknath Solkar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

M B Amarnath

D

N

25

RHB   RM

 

S Amarnath

D

N

27

LHB

 

B S Bedi

D

N

29

SLA      captain

 

B S Chandrasekhar

K

S

30

LBG

 

A D Gaekwad

Ba

W

23

RHB

 

S M Gavaskar

B

W

26

RHB opener  vice-captain

 

S M H Kirmani

K

S

26

WK

 

P Krishnamurthy

Hd

S

28

reserve WK

 

S Madan Lal

D

N

24

RFM

 

B P Patel

K

S

23

RHB

 

E A S Prasanna

K

S

35

OB

 

P H Sharma

Raj

C

28

RHB  opener

 

E D Solkar

B

W

27

LHB       LFM

 

R Sudhakar Rao

K

S

25

RHB

 

D B Vengsarkar

B

W

19

RHB   opener

 

S Venkataraghaven

TN

S

30

OB

 

G R Viswanath

K

S

26

RHB

 

 

 

 

FLAG_India 

 

 

Zonal representation

 Duleep Trophy teams

C: Central (1), E: East (0), N: North (4), S: South (8), W: West (4).

 Ranji Trophy teams

Ba - Baroda (1)

B  -  Bombay (3)

D   - Delhi (4)

H   - Hyderabad (1)

K    - Karnataka (6)

Rj -   Rajasthan (1)

TN - Tamil Nadu (1)

 

  

 

 

 

 

  

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(24 January 1976) :

  26 yrs 11 months

 

 

 

Test Appearances made before the tour

 

 

Bedi 39,  Prasanna 35,  Chandrasekhar 30,  Venkataraghaven 28,  Solkar 25,  Viswanath  23,  Gavaskar 17,  Patel 5,  Krishnamurthy 5,  Madan Lal 4,  Gaekwad 3,  Sharma 2,  M Amarnath 1,  S Amarnath 0,  Kirmani 0, Sudhakar Rao 0,  Vengsarkar 0.

 

 

 

 

 

Tour Officials

 

P R Umrigar

Manager

M B Allagannan

Treasurer

 

Balu Allagannan of Madras had been India's manager in Sri Lanka 1973-74.

 

 

 

 

Selectors

 

C D Gopinath (chairman),  Jayasingh Ghorpade,  Vijay Mehra,  Pankaj Roy,  Raj Singh.

  They were joined by Bishan Bedi (captain) and Polly Umrigar (tour manager).

 

 

 

 

 

Selection

 

Polly Umrigar was appointed tour manager on 10 December, and Bedi as the skipper ten days later. 

Unavailable  Farokh Engineer (business reasons).

Tour Party Announced : 22 December 1975.

Not Selected :

 

 

Time between selection and departure from India

  18 days

(22 December - 9 January)

 

 

 

Travel

Madras  Q   Auckland

Auckland  Q   St Vincent

 

The team flew from Madras on 9 January 1976, via Sydney, to Auckland, arriving on 10 January, then to Napier for the opening match. 

After the matches in New Zealand, they left Auckland on 22 February and flew by way of the United States to St Vincent where they landed on 24 February for the West Indies leg of the the tour.

 

 

Time spent in New Zealand     43 days   (10 January - 22 February)

and in West Indies63 days  (24 Feb - 28 April)

 

 

 

 

On-tour selection committee

 

Bishan Bedi,  Sunil Gavaskar,  Srinivas Venkataraghaven,  Polly Umrigar.

 

 

 

 

Reinforcements

 

None.

Solkar did not play in New Zealand for five weeks owing to a head injury sustained while fielding at short-leg.  Gavaskar missed mid-tour matches after his cheek was fractured in the Wellington Test, and during this period Venkat captained in two matches.

 

 

 

 

 

Fixtures/Results

 

Napier

Central Districts

Won 6 w

† Wellington

Wellington

Lost 9 w

Hamilton

Northern Districts

Won 141 r

AUCKLAND

NEW ZEALAND  First Test

WON 8 w

Dunedin

Otago

Drawn

CHRISTCHURCH

NEW ZEALAND  Second Test

DRAWN

WELLINGTON

NEW ZEALAND  Third Test

Lost inns 33 r

§ Christchurch

New Zealand (1st ODI)

Lost 9 w

§ Auckland

New Zealand (2nd ODI)

Lost 80 r

Kingstown, St Vincent

Windward Islands

Drawn

Plymouth, Montserrat

Leeward Islands

Drawn

Bridgetown

Barbados

Lost 10 w

BRIDGETOWN

WEST INDIES  First Test

LOST inns 97 r

Port of Spain

Trinidad

Drawn

PORT OF SPAIN

WEST INDIES  Second Test

DRAWN

Georgetown

Guyana

Abandoned

PORT OF SPAIN

WEST INDIES  Third Test

WON 6 w

Kingston

Jamaica

Drawn

KINGSTON

WEST INDIES  Fourth Test

LOST 10 w

 

 

 

 

not first-class

§ one-day international

 

 

Time spent in New Zealand before First Test:

   14 days

(10 - 24 January)

 

.

 

 

 

 

Test appearances on tour

 

7  -  M.Amarnath,  Chandrasekhar,  Gavaskar,  Kirmani,  Madan Lal,  Viswanath.

6  -  Bedi, Patel.

5  -  S.Amarnath, Vengsarkar.

4  -  Prasanna, Venkataraghaven.

3  -  Gaekwad.

2 -  

1  -  Sharma, Solkar.

0 -   Krishnamurthy, Sudhakar Rao.

 

 

 

 

 

Highlights

 

   Surinder Amarnath scored a Test century on debut (124 at Auckland), as his father had done in 1933.

   Surinder added 204 in a second wicket partnership with Sunil Gavaskar (116)

   Prasanna took 8 wickets for 74 runs in the 2nd innings at Auckland to win the match.

   Syed Kirmani took six catches and a stumping in the innings at Christchurch, equalling the Test record

   Gavaskar (156) and Brijesh Patel (115*)

   India were set 403 runs to win at Port of Spain. Only Australia in 1948 had reached such a target before

   Chandrasekhar took 21 wickets in the four match series (average 31.2)

 

 

 

 

 

Tour Summary

 

 

 P

W

L

D

Aban

Test Matches

  7

2

3

2

-

Other first-class matches

  9

2

1

5

1

ϯ Minor matches

  1

0

1

0

-

§ One-day internationals

  2

0

2

0

-

All Matches

19

4

7

7

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Return to India

Kingston  Q   London    Q   Bombay

 

On 28 April 1976 the team flew home from Norman Manley International Airport, Kingston, via London, to Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay.

 

Time away from India

  112 days 

 (9 January to c 30 April)

 

 

 

 

Published accounts of the tour

 

 

“West Indies ’76: India’s Caribbean Adventure” (1976)  by Kishore Ehimani  (Nachiketa Publications)

 

 

 

 

Postscript

 

 

 

 



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