Tour of West Indies 1961-62       Captain: Nari Contractor

India’s ninth Test tour

Second official Test-playing tour of West Indies by India     

 (January - April 1962)

The Indian Board was unfortunate or unwise to have arranged this tour after such a strenuous season that began in August and included a draining Test series in which England (including Barrington, M J K Smith, Lock and Dexter) were beaten by two matches to nil.

Kripal Singh and Subhash Gupte were dropped during the series against England "for disciplinary reasons".  Kripal Singh had merely called the receptionist at his hotel and asked her out for a drink but she complained and he was banned. Gupte was accused of failing to control his room mate's behaviour!  Standing by these flimsy charges, the Indian Board would not consider either man for the West Indies tour, depriving India of its best bowler in Gupte.

The tour was overshadowed by the dreadful accident in Barbados when Contractor ducked into a short ball from Charlie Griffith and fractured his skull.

Mansur Ali Khan, the Nawab of Pataudi (jr.), had been appointed vice-captain in a bid to groom him to take over eventually from Contractor. Less than a year earlier, the 21-year-old’s career was jeopardised by losing an eye in a car accident. Now responsibility for the national team fell upon him, and he became the youngest captain in the history of Test cricket. Having been unfit to play in the first two Tests, Pataudi now had to take charge in the third Test at Bridgetown. Still reeling from the loss of their regular captain at the same venue just days before, the Indians were understandably far from their best: they were beaten again by an innings in this match and then lost the next two Tests by wide margins.

Thus the series was lost 5-0, the second consecutive tour on which this had happened. Borde, Umrigar, Nadkarni, Surti and Durani all performed creditably but otherwise the batting was never comfortable against either pace or spin, while the bowling and fielding were ordinary.

In the middle of the second Test the West Indies Board of Control took the decision to cancel the British Guiana section of the tour  where security experts advised that riots were possible, giving Kingston, Jamaica, a further Test match.

Other Indian tours

Previous tour

England 1959

Next tour

England 1967 

Next West Indies tour

1970-71

Members of the Test tour  party  (16)

Opening batsmen: Nari Contractor, Vijay Mehra, Dilip Sardesai

Middle-order batsmen: Vijay Manjrekar, Polly Umrigar, Chandu Borde, Jaisimha, Nawab of Pataudi.

Wicket-keepers:Farokh Engineer, Budi Kunderan

Spinners: Erapalli Prasanna, Bapu Nadkarni, Saleem Durani

Fast bowlers:Ramakant Desai, Vasant Ranjane, Rusi Surti.

Zonal representation

 Duleep Trophy teams

C: Central (2), E: East (0), N: North (3), S: South (2), W: West (9)

Ranji Trophy teams

Ba - Baroda  (1)

B  -  Bombay (5)

D  -  Delhi (1)

Gj -  Gujarat  (2)

Hd  - Hyderabad (1)

Mh – Maharashtra (1)

My -  Mysore (1)

Rj -  Rajasthan (2)

Rly – Railways (2)

The Duleep competition was started by the BCCI in the 1961–62 season.  Pataudi and Ranjane  did not participate in this tournament

Manjrekar did not play in the Ranji Trophy in 1961-62

Average age of  team at time of first Test match

(16 February 1962):

   25 yrs  3 months

Test Appearances made before the tour

Umrigar 54,  Manjrekar 42,  Contractor 29,  Borde 23,  Desai 18,  Nadkarni 16,  Jaisimha 11,  Durani 6,  Kunderan 6,  Engineer 4,  Ranjane 4,  Pataudi 3,  Mehra 3,  Surti 2,  Prasanna 1,  Sardesai 1.

Tour Officials

Selectors

V S Hazare (chairman), M J Gopalan, ….

Selection

Thirty players were invited to state whether they were available.

The captain's name was announced on 11 January.

During the 1961-62 series against England Gupte's team-mate Kripal Singh invited the receptionist at Delhi's Imperial Hotel for a drink but she took exception and lodged a complaint to the Indian team manager against the occupants in room seven. The Indian Board secretary, A N Ghosh, banned Gupte for the West Indies tour for "failing to prevent his colleague from making the call".

Unavailable:  Abbas Ali Baig,  H T ‘Bal’ Dani,  R Surrendranath,  N Viswanath.

Not considered :  Subhash Gupte and A G Kripal Singh

Tour Party Announced : 16 January 1962.

Time between selection and departure from India

  15 days

 (16 January - 31 January)

Travel

Bombay   Q  London   Q  Port of Spain

The team flew from Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay, to Heathrow Airport, London on 31 January 1962, and then, via a stopover in New York, to Piarco Airport, Port of Spain, arriving on 5 February.

Time spent in West Indies       84 days

(5 February - 30 April)

On-tour selection committee

Ghulam Ahmed (manager - chair),  Nari Contractor (captain),  Polly Umrigar.

Reinforcements

None, although Contractor had to stay in hospital after his injury and could not resume playing for the tour party. Pataudi became captain.  No vice-captain was named; if the need had arisen, Umrigar would have led the side.  Contractor arrived back in Bombay on 27 April.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

.

Time spent in West Indies before First Test:

 11 days

(5 - 16 February)

Test appearances on tour

5  -  Borde,  Durani,  Manjrekar,  Nadkarni,  Surti,  Umrigar.

4  -  Jaisimha.

3  -  Desai,  Engineer,  Mehra,  Pataudi,  Sardesai.

2  -  Contractor,  Kunderan.

1  -  Prasanna,  Ranjane.

0  - 

Highlights

•    The Nawab of Pataudi became the youngest Test captain (21 years 77 days).

•    Durani, promoted to bat at number 3, hit 104  and Umrigar scored 172* in the fourth Test to build India's highest total of the series (422).

Tour Summary

Return to India

St Kitts   Q  London   Q  Bombay

Contractor was flown from Port of Spain on 9 April to consult a brain specialist in New York.  He arrived back in Bombay on 27 April.

Borde arrived back in England on 23 April. It was expected that, as a professional with Rawtenstall club, he would be obliged to miss the final Test match, as would six members of the West Indian side, but the Lancashire League relented.  Manjrekar, another professional, ……..

The planned itinerary had the team flying back to Port of Spain or San Juan en route to New York on 24 April

However, the team played a final match on St Kitts and flew, via Bermuda, to London (1 May) and arrived back at Santa Cruz airport on 4 May 1962.

Time away from India

  93 days  

(31 January to 4 May)

Finances

Published accounts of the tour

"India in West Indies"  Calcutta Illustrated News.

Postscript