Daring hooks became his trademark, but he also drove effortlessly andcut ferociously
Partab Ramchand10-May-2002By the time India and the West Indies next met in the Caribbean, thehome team was well and truly regarded as the best in the world. Theywas never any chance of India repeating their feat of 1971, especiallyafter losing badly in Pakistan just before the series against the WestIndies. A comfortable victory was predicted for the home team and, inthe end, the 2-0 victory in the five-match series would seem to be avindication of such forecasting.
Daring hooks became his trademark, but he also drove effortlessly andcut ferociously. To the 584 runs he scored against Pakistan, Amarnathadded another 598, with two hundreds and four fifties. Little wonderthen that, by the end of the tour, he was hailed as the best player offast bowling in the world.
When the Indians landed in the West Indies, Kapil Dev, in his firstassignment as captain, and manager Hanumant Singh made it clear thatthey did consider the home side as a formidable unit and almostinvincible. But they also promised to give it everything to ensure agood series in which the West Indies would be forced to fight forvictory. Instead of being accused of being defeatist in their outlook,Kapil and Hanumant received praise for quickly grasping the reality ofthe situation.The home team was then in the midst of their record run of 27 matcheswithout a loss. With the batting being manned by the likes of GordonGreenidge, Desmond Haynes, Vivian Richards, Clive Lloyd, Jeff Dujon,Larry Gomez and Gus Logie, and with a fearsome quartet of fast bowlersin Malcolm Marshall, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts and Joel Garner toback them up, it can easily be seen why the West Indians were ‘numerouno’ in the cricketing world by a long way.What did India have to match this outstanding line-up? The debacle inPakistan had necessitated a few changes, the most important one takingplace at the top, with Kapil replacing Sunil Gavaskar. For the firsttime since 1969, the Indian team was without Gundappa Viswanath,dropped after 87 consecutive Tests.But the batting still had a capable look about it, for besidesGavaskar and Kapil, players like Mohinder Amarnath, Dilip Vengsarkar,Yashpal Sharma, Anshuman Gaekwad, Ravi Shastri and Syed Kirmani werearound. The bowling too looked balanced, with Kapil, Balwinder Sandhuand Madan Lal to handle the new ball, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan,Shastri, Maninder Singh and L Sivaramakrishnan to give the old ball atweak. Maninder and Siva, both teenage prodigies, had shown promise inPakistan, while Venkat was recalled after three-and-a-quarter years,both in view of his fine performances on the two previous tours andalso to lend experience to the spin attack.Whatever the strengths of the visiting side, the line-up of the twoteams clearly showed that the West Indies were the better team, moreso under home conditions; this was amply reflected in the finalresult. But if the Indians lost, they certainly were not disgraced.The West Indies won the first Test with just four balls to spare, theseries was kept alive till the final day of the fourth Test, and thetourists won a lot of friends by their fighting spirit and never-saydie attitude.None displayed this more than Amarnath. He had come good on hiscomeback series in Pakistan, and now he carried this form throughagainst the West Indies. Never flinching, Amarnath not only faced thepace quartet’s barrage of bouncers and short-pitched bowling withbatting that was the apotheosis of courage, but he also scored freelyoff them.Daring hooks became his trademark, but he also drove effortlessly andcut ferociously. To the 584 runs he scored against Pakistan, Amarnathadded another 598, with two hundreds and four fifties. Little wonderthen that, by the end of the tour, he was hailed as the best player offast bowling in the world. Such was his form that on May 3, the finalday of the series, Amarnath crossed 1,000 runs for the calendar year,the fastest batsman to reach the mark.Unfortunately the other players could not take a leaf from Amarnath’sbook, and the batting was rather patchy. Shastri confirmed his earlypromise by getting a century in the final Test, Kapil hammered anunbeaten 100 off just 95 balls in the closing stages of the drawnsecond Test, while Gavaskar got his customary three-figure knock (his27th ton in Tests) in the rain-affected game at Georgetown, the venuewhere he had notched up his maiden hundred 12 years before. But morewas expected from them, as also from Yashpal, Gaekwad and Vengsarkar.Confronted with a line-up of awesome stroke-players, the bowlers werealways going to find it tough going, and it speaks volumes for Kapil’scapabilities that he took 17 wickets at an average of only 24.94. Infact, in the second game of the series, his 50th Test, he became, at24 years and 68 days, the youngest player to complete the double of2000 runs and 200 wickets.The recall of Venkat was hardly successful, his 10 wickets costing him58.60 apiece, although it must be admitted that he suffered the mostthrough dropped catches. Maninder and Siva, perhaps a bit awed by theopposition, could make little impression in the limited opportunitiesthat came their way. At 17 years and 118 days, Siva became theyoungest Indian to make his Test debut when he played the final gameof the series. Shastri at best was steady without being penetrative,while the medium-pace of Sandhu and Madan Lal proved no more thanamiable. To make matters worse, Kirmani had a mediocre tour, missing anumber of catches and stumpings.From the Indian viewpoint, there was one significant event away fromthe Test arena – the victory in the second one-day international atBerbice. The West Indies were then the undisputed champions in thelimited-overs game, while India’s record was woeful. And yet, thanksmainly to Gavaskar’s electrifying 90 and Kapil’s swashbuckling 72 off38 balls with seven fours and three sixes, India smashed 282 for fiveoff 47 overs then the highest total by any team against the WestIndies.Kapil, Sandhu, Madan Lal and Shastri then restricted West Indies to255 for nine in 47 overs, and the 27-run win was just the tonic theIndians needed for their World Cup challenge in England a few monthslater. What happened there is, of course, much too well-known to bechronicled here.