My Life with cricket - 16

Indian cricket moves on without Sunil Gavaskar

My cricketing journey had begun exactly four years ago when West Indies visited India for a test series. Immediately after the World Cup West Indies team stayed back for a four Test match series and 6- one day international matches. The odds were certainly more even since the last series but still, the West Indies was very strong, especially in the one-day internationals. At least India considered themselves weak.

Further, Gordon Greenidge had joined the team for this tour. I still never understand what kept him away from the World Cup. Those days were limited on such information. Nevertheless, the West Indies’ opening pair of Desmond Haynes and Greenidge was reunited, making the West Indies batting look formidable.

For India, it marked the conclusion of an era. Sunil Gavaskar would no longer be there to open the batting. Fans were uncertain about how India would fare without Gavaskar. For more than 17 years, the entire nation had relied on one batsman, match after match. With remarkable consistency, Sunil Gavaskar delivered runs. Now, who would open, who would bat for us? Indian cricket felt like a teenager suddenly orphaned.

One relief for India was that Michael Holding had retired earlier in the year and Malcom Marshall for some reasons, continued to stay away from India after his absence from the World Cup.

On personal front, I was having my best year in my school life in standard 8th.

When I came back from school at around 3:45 PM on the opening day of the Delhi Test match, the score line perplexed me.  West Indies were 118 for 7.  I was pleasantly stunned but then a thought came to my mind. It is almost the end of the day, and they have scored only 118, how is that possible? And then I was told that India earlier had been bowled out for 75. When I came to know that West Indies earlier had been 29 for 6 and later 49 for 7, I was disappointed.

No further wickets fell on the day. The next day was a Sunday, and the West Indies innings ended at 127, earning them a lead of 52 runs. it was a good fight back by India with Kapil Dev and Chetan Sharma doing the damage.

Indian innings again started badly with Srikkanth getting out early. Patrick Patterson, the new demonic fast bowler bowled the number 3 batsman Raman Lamba for a first ball duck.  India was 10 for 2 and their new captain Dilip Vengsarkar had to come out early, facing new ball and a turbo charged Patterson. I remember the first delivery Vengsarkar faced - it was a high short ball slightly outside the off stump and he somehow managed to block it just below his shoulder. After this initial jitter, Arun Lal scored 40 and steadied the Indian innings in the company of Vengsarkar, who settled down for a long vigil. Indian batting showed a lot of promise and continued to battle hard with crucial runs coming from Kapil Dev and Kiran More. Poor Sanjay Manjrekar, who was making his debut, was hit on his face, and had to retire hurt. He did not play for one year.

India set up a target of 275 runs for West Indies to chase in the 4th innings after Dilip Vengsarkar scored a fighting hundred. It was a good target considering what happened in the first innings of both teams. India looked in command when the West Indies slipped to 109 for 4. I recall that a very vociferous appeal by Kapil Dev against Gus Logie was turned down by the Umpire. There was no way he was not out, but the way Viv Richards stared at the umpire probably terrified him. The two batsmen went on to put on a hundred partnership and India duly lost the game after Viv Richards’ run a ball century. For all my admiration for him, Richards sometimes took his dominance as a privilege, and employed intimidating methods to sustain it, like celebrating before umpire’s decision, or the killer stare here.  

India had lost this match, but the West Indies’ weaknesses were apparent. The batting well still strong but not terrifying and the bowling without Malcolm Marshall, looked ordinary, especially on Indian pitches. Around this Test match, a player who would go on to impact this series dramatically was unearthed.

The next two test matches were drawn. In the second, rain affected Test match at Bombay, the Indian captain possibly took 50% of the deliveries on his body to delay India's second innings and when they were eventually bowled out, West Indies were left with a target of 118 runs in 11 overs. And they went for it, but Gordon Greenidge was soon caught at fine leg. After his dismissal, the West Indies lost interest. But it was apparent that five or six more overs would have spelled disaster for India. Earlier in the Indian innings, when Arun Lal fell as the first wicket for 1, the score was 70! Srikkanth had belted 69 of the runs.

The next Test match was a high scoring draw at Calcutta now known as Kolkata. India was still batting in their first innings on the 5th day tells you how boring the draw was. Vengsarkar scored his 17th and last Test match century at the age of 31. It is hard to believe now after so many years, that it turned out to be his last score over 100. In the next 20 or so test matches he played; his highest score was 75.

Ironies:

When Graham Gooch scored his fifth test century in 1985 Ashes Oval test, he was 32 years of age. He had missed his 3 of England years by opting for a rebel South Africa tour. But still, 5 test hundreds by the age of 32? Today in 2025, people have 25 hundreds by that age.

In a stark contrast another player, who also has a lot of hundreds against the West Indies though not so legendary ones as Gooch’s, scored 17 test hundreds by the age of 31 and scored none thereafter. Dilip Vengsarkar, the elegant Indian middle order batsman, who dominated the four-year period of 85 to 1988 so much that he was voted the best batsman when the Deloittes ratings were introduced in 1987. And this was the time when his contemporaries were Viv Richards, Allan Border, David Gower, Javed Miandad and Martin Crowe.

Gooch went on to play till he was 41 while Vengsarkar retired at the age of 36. At 38, Gooch played the best test innings of all time- the mighty 153 not out.  Gooch eventually ended at 20 test hundreds while Vengsarkar ended at 17!

The final Test match of the series was played at Madras (now called Chennai) where India gave debut to several players. One of them produced the greatest debut bowling figures of all time. Bob Massie had claimed 16 for 137 in his first test match in 1971 but the 18-year-old bespectacled leg spinner Narendra Hirwani took 16 wickets in the match and broke the record by one run. Most of the West Indian batsman had no clue against Hirwani. They mindlessly tried to play big shots against him. Consequently, five of them got stumped in the second innings. India won comfortably. The West Indian captain Viv Richards was furious, but he had nothing to complain about since it was a good Test match wicket. It was simply the genius or the novelty of Hirwani’s bowling that led to West Indies’ defeat. The other debutant was WV Raman, who scored 80 plus in the second innings. Ajay Sharma, the Ranji trophy Bradman, also played his first test here.

This was the last test match for unsung hero (at that time!) Mohinder Amarnath. A great, special test match to retire for him, though he didn’t contribute much with the bat. Later, I read an interview of Narendra Hirwani in which he mentioned that “upon claiming Viv Richards’ wicket, everyone congratulated me an and I was so overjoyed that I touched Mohinder bhai’s feet.” Though Amarnath played in ODIs until the end of 1989, his test career was over.

In the limited overs internationals, West Indies were still good enough to steam roll India with ease in all but one game which was won by India thanks to Mohinder Amarnath’s heroics.  

It was quite surprising that India managed to lose the one-day international series in margin of 6-1. one of the matches was termed as a beneficial match so the final score line became 5-1. This reminded the world that West Indies was still very strong although key players were going away at the rate of knots.

Indian captain Vengsarkar was injured in the third Test match at Kolkata and did not take part in the Madras test and in any of the ODI matches after the third match. Later he was charged with writing for a newspaper which led to a punishment of six months ban.

The cricket calendar in those days used to be very lean. India did not have any serious engagement until the end of the year. In May-June however India competed with New Zealand and Sri Lanka in a meaningless tri-series in Sharjah which they comfortably won under the leadership of Ravi shastri.

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