Tour of West Indies 1970-71       Captain: Ajit Wadekar

India’s twelfth Test tour

Third official Test-playing tour of West Indies by India

 (February – April 1971)

This was only the second (out of twelve) Test tours to date on which India had won a Test series, the other occasion being in New Zealand in 1967-68.  It was also the first time that India had won a Test match against West Indies after 24 attempts, and started India on her hat-trick of series wins (1970-71, 1971, 1972-73).

Veteran selector Dutta Ray, unwell with high blood pressure, was forced to miss the meeting that appointed the tour captain.  After the decision not to appoint Chandu Borde as captain because of his lack of form and fitness, Merchant used his casting vote to discard 'Tiger' Pataudi and appoint Ajit Wadekar to lead the side.

To the disappointment of many commentators, Chandrasekhar was left out of the tour party while Engineer and Surti were not considered because of a ruling that they must have played during the season's Ranji Trophy competition.

India’s victory owed an enormous debt to Sunil Gavaskar's spectacular record-breaking achievements, among them topping 1000 runs on tour. He received exceptional support from Solkar and Sardesai. When Wadekar was asked what he attributed the vistory to, he replied: "We had good fun. We played like a team. Proper planning, strategy, the psychological battle being won by us, the batting feats of Sardesai and Gavaskar and, not to forget, the brilliant fielding."   (Rediff interview April 18, 2002) 

The Indians were the first Test touring team from any country to visit Dominica.

The team planned to visit Canada for a week (the last week in April) after the West Indian tour and go to Washington and Philadelphia to play Indian student teams but these extra visits fell through.

Other Indian tours

Previous tours

New Zealand 1967-68

Next tour

England 1971 

Next West Indies tour

1975-76

Members of the Test tour  party  (16) 

Opening batsmen: Sunil Gavaskar, Kenia Jayantilal

Middle-order batsmen:  Ajit Wadekar, Dilip Sardesai, Ashok Mankad, Gundappa Viswanath, ML Jaisimha

Wicket-keepers:Pochiah Krishnamurthy, Rusi Jeejeebhoy

Spinners: Bishan Bedi, Saleem Durani, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghaven

Fast bowlers:  Abid Ali, Dev Govindraj, Eknath Solkar

Zonal representation

 Duleep Trophy teams

C: Central (1), E: East (3), N: North (2), S: South (5), W: West (5)

 Ranji Trophy teams 

Bn - Bengal (1)

B  - Bombay (5)

D   - Delhi  (1)

Hd   - Hyderabad (5)

Ms – Madras  (1)

My – Mysore (1)

Raj - Rajasthan  (1)

TN  - Tamil Nadu (1)

In 1969 Madras State was renamed Tamil Nadu  

Test Appearances made before the tour

Jaisimha 36,  Durani 23,  Prasanna 22,  Wadekar 21,  Sardesai 21,  Bedi 19,  Venkat 14,  Abid Ali 12,  Mankad 7,  Solkar 5,  Viswanath 4,  Gavaskar 0,  Govindraj 0,  Jayantilal 0,  Jeejeebhoy 0, Krishnamurthy 0.

Tour Officials

Selectors

Vijay Merchant (chairman),  Bal Dani,  M Dutta Ray,  C D Gopinath,  M M Jagdale, with Ajit Wadekar included

Selection

While Bal Dani urged a change from Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi as captain after 36 Tests in charge, Dutta Ray, Gopinath and Jagdale favoured retaining him. The Chairman backed Ajit Wadekar as skipper instead. Dutta Ray missed the vital meeting at the Brabourne Stadium on 8 January so the vote was 2-1, but Merchant used his casting vote to ensure that Wadekar was appointed skipper.

The team was chosen at a subsequent meeting in Bombay on 12 January and was announced the next day in Madras, after approval by the Indian Board.  Wadekar insisted on the inclusion of Dilip Sardesai and he scored a double century in the first Test and two other hundreds.

Unavailable: The Nawab of Pataudi (Hd), 30, once he was not selected as captain. He said on the day that the captaincy was settled, he would be entering politics and contesting Haryana in the elections.

Rusi Surti, 34, was playing for Queensland and Farokh Engineer, 32, had made his home in Lancashire, so they were unable to play in the Ranji Trophy tournament, and therefore deemed not eligible.

Tour Party Announced : 13 January 1971

Not selected : Bhagwat S Chandrasekhar,  Farokh Engineer,  Rusi Surti,  Syed M H Kirmani.

Jaisimha's selection was a surprise, the result of scoring two big centuries in the Duleep Trophy. He scored few runs but gave invaluable counsel on the field to Wadekar 

Time between selection and departure from India

    19 days

 (13 January - 1 February)

Travel

Bombay  Q   London   Q   New York   Q   Kingston 

Having convened at Bombay on 24 January, the team had a week's practice under Sardesai's supervision.  They flew out of Santa Cruz Airport, Bombay, on 1 February, by way of  London and New York. Gavaskar needed to have a septic finger injury lanced at J F K Airport and was unable to play for a fortnight. The plane left London Heathrow two hours late and the team missed its connecting flight from New York. They landed at Palisados Airport in Kingston, Jamaica,  on 3 February rather than the evening before.  Their equipment had not yet arrived, however, so they had to miss a day's practice.

Time spent in West Indies

   77 days

(3 February - 21 April)

On-tour selection committee

Wadekar (captain),  Venkataraghaven (vice-captain),  Tarapor (manager).

 This group co-opted  Jaisimha,  Sardesai  and  Durani.

Reinforcements

None.  Despite Gavaskar's indisposition, and that of Viswanath - who later had to be drafted into the side for the Third Test because Prasanna was injured - the team got by without reinforcements.

Fixtures/Results

† not first-class

.

Time spent in West Indies before First Test:

 16 days

(3  - 19 February)

Test appearances on tour

5  -  Abid Ali, Bedi, Krishnamurthy, Sardesai, Solkar, Venkat, Wadekar.

4  -  Gavaskar.

3  -  Durani, Jaisimha, Mankad, Prasanna,Viswanath.

2  - 

1  -  Jayantilal.

0 -   Govindraj, Jeejeebhoy.

Highlights

•   Gavaskar's prodigious batting displays saw him score 774 runs in eight Test innings at a Bradman-like average of 154.80. Gavaskar made two fifties on his debut when India won the second Test. He added centuries in each of the next two Tests and then played innings of 124 and 220 in the final Test.

•    Sardesai struck three centuries, including 112 in the victory at Port-of-Spain.  Earlier he had rescued India from 75 for 5 with a double century that made West Indies follow on in the first Test. Adding a further century at Bridgetown, he aggregated 640 runs for the series.

•   India gained a first Test victory over West Indies after trying for 24 matches.

•   Venkataraghaven was India’s highest wicket-taker, with 22, in a series against the West Indies.

Tour Summary

Return to India

Port of SpainQ   Bombay 

The team relaxed for a day on Tobago, then caught the 8 am Sunjet flight for New York on 21 April.  Wadekar flew direct from London where he met the others on their arrival in New Delhi.  The whole squad flew home to a jubilant welcome in Bombay.

Time away from India

  81 (?) days 

 (1 February - 23?? April)

Finances

Published accounts of the tour

"India vs  West Indies "  (1971)  by Sundur Rajan   [Jaico Publishing House]

"Gone with the Indians"  (1974)?   by Brunell Jones   [pub Sport/News Service].

Postscript