Tour of West Indies 1996-97Captain: Sachin Tendulkar
India's 37th Test tour
Seventh Test-playing tour ofWest Indies by India
(February - May 1997)
The Indians had just completed a tiring and unhappy tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa when they had to fly to the Caribbean for another eleven weeks.
Navjot Sidhu was exempted from attending a hearing on 15 March with regard to a murder case against the Indian opener, and the Patiala court granted him permission to travel to the West Indies.
Although aged only 23, Tendulkar was not the youngest Indian skipper in the West Indies. The Nawab of Pataudi had become captain in 1961-62 when Contractor dropped out of the tour.
Robin Singh was raised in the West Indies and made his first-class debut for South & Central Trinidad in 1982-3, aged 19, before moving to Madras.
Durvasula Venkata Subba Rao, a lawyer, was a former Mayor of Visakhapatnam and was for two terms President of the Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association.
Selectors
Ramakanth Desai, chairman, and the four other national selectors - Shivlal Yadav, Kishen Rungta, Sambaran Bannerjee and M Pandove - met on 19 Februaryat the Cricket Club of India in Bombay.
Selection
Skipper Tendulkar made a strong request for at least one name to be added to the touring party, but the request was turned down as the BCCI had permitted the West Indies to bring only 16 when they last toured India.
Unavailable:
Tour Party Announced : 19 February 1997.
Time between selection and departure from India
5 days
(19 February - 24 February)
Travel
Departure from Bombay was late on Monday night 24 February 1997.Prior to departure, the Indian team was given a pep talk by BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur.
The Indians landed at Kingston late on Tuesday night 25 February and held a practice session at Sabina Park next afternoon in preparation for their first tour match against Jamaica.
Time spent in West Indies
68 days
(25 February - 4 May)
On-tour selection committee
Sachin Tendulkar,manager Subba Rao, and coach Madan Lal.
Reinforcements
Srinath returned to India suffering from an impingement syndrome in his right shoulder. He withdrew after practice in the nets, without bowling a ball in a match.
N A David
Hd
26
OB
Madan Lal tried to push the case for veteran Kanwaljit Singh. Instead Hyderabad's off-spinner Noel David was named as his replacement (‘Noel who?’, Tendulkar is believed to have asked’ - cricinfo)
•Kumble took 5 for 120 in the first innings of the Test series, and 5 for 104 in the next.
•Sidhu's 201 in the Second Test was the second slowestdouble century in Test history (11 hours).
•Tendulkar (92), Jadeja (96) and Dravid (92) all narrowly failed to score centuries in Test series.
•Abey Kuruvilla took 5 wickets for 68 on a pitch of unevan bounce at Bridgetown.
•On the same pitch India, set 120 to win, collapsed to their lowest total in the West Indies (81).
Tour Summary
P
W
L
D
Aban
Test Matches
5
0
1
4
-
Other first-class matches
3
1
0
2
-
† Minor matches
3
3
0
0
-
§ One-day internationals
4
1
3
0
-
All Matches
15
5
4
6
-
Return to India
Prasad flew back to India after the final one-day international (for the birth of his first child).
On 4 May 1997 the team flew from Antigua to New York where they spent three days and officials met President of the Bermudan Board, Ed Bailey, to sort out visa arrangements.
The Indians arrived in Bermuda from New York on Wed 7 May. They brought fifteen players (but NS Sidhu was unable to play because of torn muscle injuries).
After playing two matches, the Indians departed for home on Sunday 11 May and would go straight into action in the Independence Cup.
They flew from Bermuda to London and returned home on a British Airways flight to Sahar International Airport, Mumbai, on Monday night 12 May 1997. They left the next morning for Bangalore to open the four nations tournament against New Zealand.