Tour of West Indies 1952-53         Captain: Vijay Hazare

India’s sixth official Test tour

First official tour of West Indies by India

(December 1952 –

            April 1953) 

As soon as the home series against Pakistan was concluded, the Indians left for their first-ever tour of the Caribbean.

Before the tour began, five of the chosen team withdrew. Of these the greatest loss was Ghulam Ahmed and the Indian Board kept his place open as they tried to persuade their most talented off-spinner to change his mind. There seemed no rush over choosing a substitute until a spate of injuries necessitated flying out reserve spinner Ghorpade at short notice.

The Indians overcame their dismal performances in England less than a year before and were beaten just once in the five Tests despite West Indies’ all-round strength.  Over-dependent, it seemed at first, on the spin bowling pair of Gupte and Mankad, India’s batting and fielding shone: Umrigar and Roy were outstanding throughout and in his final tour innings Manjrekar showed his rich promise with a fine century.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

England 1952

Next tour

Pakistan 1954-55 

Next tour of West Indies

1961-62

Members of the Test tour party  (15  + 1)

Opening batsmen: : Madhav Apte, Pankaj Roy.

Middle-order batsmen: Vijay Hazare, Datta Gaekwad, Chandrasekhar Gadkari, Deepak Shodhan, Vijay Manjrekar, Polly Umrigar.

Wicket-keepers: Ebrahim Maka, Nana Joshi

All-rounders:  Vinoo Mankad, Gulabrai Ramchand

Spinners:Subhash Gupte.

Fast bowler:Dattu Phadkar, Kannayiram.

Zonal representation

E: East (1), N: North (2), S: South (1), W: West (11).

 Ranji Trophy teams 

Ba - Baroda  (2)

Bn  - Bengal  (1)

B  -  Bombay  (6)

Gj  - Gujarat  (3)

Ms  -  Madras  (1)

Sv  -  Services (2)

Most players did not have the opportunity to take part in the 1952-53 Ranji Trophy so their 1951-52 team is shown

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(21 January 1953) :

     26 yrs 4 months.

Test Appearances made before the tour

Hazare 25,  Mankad 25,  Phadkar 18,  Umrigar 15,  Roy 12,  Manjrekar 9,  Ramchand 7,  Gaekwad 3,  Gupte 3,  Joshi 3,  Apte 2,  Maka 1,  Shodhan 1,  Gadkari 0,  Ghorpade 0,  Kannayiram 0.

Tour Officials 

Selectors 

Homi N Contractor (chairman),   M Dutta Ray,  Cota Ramaswamy  and  Vijay S Hazare (captain).

Selection 

The selectors nominated Vijay Hazare as captain on 24 November and he was added to the selection panel.

Tour Party Announced : 6 December 1952.

Withdrawls :  Before the tour begun, five of the chosen team withdrew.

P Sen (Bn), whose place was taken by Maka;

C D Gopinath (Ms) broke his collar bone and was replaced by L Adiseth, the burly doctor who was the mainstay of Mysore cricket, but he also withdrew;

G Kasturirangan (My) had a groin injury and was replaced by Kannayiram;

Ghulam Ahmed (Hd) turned down the tour in order to get married on 26 December, three days after the team flew from India.

It had originally been decided on 29 November to pick 16 players rather than 15. But after Ghulam Ahmed withdrew, the Board postponed the issue of a 16th player, as they still hoped to persuade Ghulam to tour.

Time between selection and departure from India

  17 days

 (6 - 23 December)

Travel

Bombay   Q   London

Southampton   T   Bridgetown

                      ‘Golfito’

The team flew from Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay, to Heathrow Airport, London, on 23 December and spent a few days in London during Christmas.  On 28 December they boarded the ss 'Golfito' at Southampton Docks, together with the West Indian players based in England. 

On reaching Bridgetown on 4 January after a stormy crossing, Worrell and Ramadhin disembarked and got a much bigger welcome than the Indians. Next day the Indians sailed on to Port of Spain.

Time spent in West Indies

   94 days

(4 January - 8 April)

On-tour selection committee 

Vijay Hazare(captain),   Vinoo Mankad (vice-captain),   Cota Ramaswamy (manager).

Reinforcements 

On 17 January the Indian Board of Control requested their off-break bowler Ghulam Ahmed to fly out to the West Indies and support Vinoo Mankad and Subhash Gupte as the chief spinners. However, he declined to do so as his wedding had already been postponed once because of a relative's illness.  Instead uncapped leg-spinner Jayasingh Ghorpadeleft Bombay on 1 February 1953 and flew, via London and Montreal, to Bridgetown.

Datta Gaekwad injured his shoulder fielding in the second Test match and Ebrahim Maka had two bones in his left hand fractured while batting against fast bowler Frank King in the third Test.  Neither could play again on the tour and were flown home from Port of Spain after the 3rd Test.

Fixtures/Results 

† not first-class

Time spent in West Indies before First Test:

 17 days

(4 - 21 January)

Test appearances on tour 

5 -   Apte, Gupte, Hazare, Mankad, Ramchand, Umrigar.

4 -   Manjrekar, Phadkar, Roy.

3 -   Gadkari, Joshi.

2 -   Gaekwad, Ghorpade, Shodhan.

1 -   Maka.

0 -   Kannayiram.

Highlights 

•    Subhash Gupte took fifty wickets on the tour, 27 of them in the Test series.

•    Mankad got through 345 overs in the Test series (in 8 innings)

•    Opener Apte finished with a tally of of 460 runs.  His innings of 163* at Port of Spain made him India’s highest scorer in the Caribbean until Umrigar in 1962.

•    Umrigar scored centuries in the First and Fifth Tests and topped the batting averages with 550 runs.

•    Roy (150) and Manjrekar (118) made a 2nd wicket stand of 237 runs to save the fifth Test.

Tour Summary 

Return to India

Port Antonio   T   Tilbury

                      ‘Cavina’

Gaekwad and Maka flew home early because of injury.

A farewell dinner, given by the Jamaican Cricket Board of Control on Saturday 4 April at the Myrtle Bank Hotel in Kingston, brought the tour to a close.

Roy and Shodhan flew from Kingston on 7 April, via Miami and New York, to England for a holiday. 

The remainder of the team sailed on the ss 'Cavina' from Port Antonio, Jamaica, on 8 April. 

Ghorpade had given Hazare who suffered badly from seasickness his return plane ticket and the skipper flew with the professional players (Mankad, Phadkar, Ramchand and Umrigar) to London on 8 April; after three days there, Hazare flew on to India.

Time away from India

  x days   (23 December  to date arrived in India)

Finances 

"As a satisfactory profit was forthcoming, the decision of India to undertake the tour, which at one time looked like being cancelled, was justified"  Wisden 1954.

Published accounts of the tour 

Ramchand’s account of the tour is at  www.espncricinfo.com/wivind/content/story/244926.html