An afternoon to remember

Tony Becca, FROM THE BOUNDARY

Starting from 1949, the West Indies and India have played 18 Test series against each other with the Windies winning 12, the Indians winning four, and two have been left unfinished and undecided.

The two drawn series apart, in 1987/88 between Viv Richards and Dilip Vengsarkar and 1994/95 between Courtney Walsh and Mohammad Azharuddin, the action has been exciting, and it has been exciting because of a rich history of especially gifted players on both sides.

From India have come batsmen such as Vijay Hazare, Polly Umrigar, Vijay Manjrekar, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Vishwanath, Mohammad Azharuddin. and Sachin Tendulkar, and from the West Indies have come the likes of Frank Worrell, Everton Weekes, Clyde Walcott, Rohan Kanhai, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Gordon Greenidge, and Brian Lara.

From India have come magical spin bowlers, players like Subhash Gupte and Vinoo Mankad, Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan, Erapali Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and Bishan Bedi, and from the West Indies have come fast bowlers, really fast bowlers, players like Roy Gilchrist, Wes Hall, Andy Roberts, Michael Holding. Colin Croft, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Ian Bishop; Courtney Walsh, and Curtly Ambrose, and for those who do not remember, Sonny Ramadhin, Alfred Valentine, and Lance Gibbs.

great all-rounders

There have also been some great all-rounders, some numbered among the very best, cricketers like Garry Sobers of the West Indies, Kapil Dev and Ravishankar Shastri of India.

With one team boasting spin bowlers of such skill and mystery, one team parading fast bowlers of such speed, both teams loaded with batsmen of such unquenchable appetite for runs, and at their best, both teams represented by some of the game's most brilliant fielders, the action, most of the time if not all of the time, has always been exciting, truly exciting and full of quality.

This time, with the West Indies ranked at number eight and up to the time of writing, likely to be without top opening batsman, Chris Gayle, and with India missing at least six of their best players in Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, and Sreesanth, both teams are suffering and the action is unlikely to be thrilling or bursting with quality.

In Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virat Kohli, Harbhajan Singh, and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, however, India possess some players of quality who can also entertain, and so do the West Indies with the likes of Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Brendan Nash, and hopefully, youngsters Lendl Simmons, Adrian Barath, Darren Bravo, Kemar Roach, and Devendra Bishoo.

hoping for action

As we await the umpires to take their positions on the field to signal the start to the 2011 Test series we hope, however, to see some action befitting these two great cricketing teams, one a former undisputed champion of the world, the other the World Cup champion and pushing to be the number one team in the world.

I can still see, in my mind's eye, the great players of the West Indies and India locked in battle at Sabina Park through the years, from the first time in 1953 to the last time in 2006, from the run-feast by Umrigar, 117, Frank Worrell, 237, Everton Weekes, 109, Clyde Walcott, 118, Pankaj Roy, 150, and Vijay Manjrekar, 118 , to the wonderful exhibition of spin bowling by Harbhajan Singh, five for 13, and Anil Kumble, six for 78.

As good as those two memories are, however, they come a far, far second to the miracle of 1971 and the drama and excitement of 1983.

In 1971, in the first match of the series, India came here, they were led by Jamaica on first innings, and they were labelled as no better than a club side.

In the first Test match India lost the toss and they were reeling at 75 for five shortly afterwards. Then came Eknath Solker to join Dilip Sardesai, however, and with Sardesai stroking 212 and Solkar 61, India recovered to post 387.

Sardesai stroked 17 fours and hit one six in an innings which lasted 470 minutes and will be remembered as one of the finest ever played at Sabina Park, better than Kanhai's 158 not out and Sobers' 93 after the West Indies were dismissed cheaply in their first innings and were forced to follow on.

The Test match was drawn but India went on to win their first series against West Indies, thanks to Sardesai, who scored 212, 112 and three, 45 run out, 150 and 24, 75 and 21, and to Gavaskar, who made his debut in the second Test and scored 65 and 67 not out, 116 and 64 not out, one and 117 not out, and 124 and 220.

The Test match against India at Sabina Park which I will never forget, or rather the one afternoon that I will never forget was the final session of the first Test of 1983.

At tea, the match was as good as dead, according to the scoreboard, India were 168 for six, they were 165 runs ahead of the West Indies, and with four wickets in hand and only one session remaining in the Test match, everyone, or almost everyone, gave it up as a draw.

In the first over after the interval, however, Roberts removed Syed Kirmani, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, and Venkat, and in his second over he took care of Maninder Singh as four wickets fell for four runs to leave the West Indies to get 172 runs off 26 overs to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Thanks to Richards, the West Indies did it with four deliveries to spare. Richards blasted 61 off 35 deliveries with five fours and four sixes, and Jeffrey Dujon chipped in with a six to win the match, a lovely shot off Mohinder Amarnath which landed upstairs the Kingston Club pavilion.