THE BLOODBATH

 

Image Credit- ESPN CricInfo.

Venue- Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica [April 1976].

In the summer of 1976, Indian Cricket Team toured West Indies to play 4 Test Matches. This Test Series turned out to be highly controversial and eventful. The West Indies had toured Australia earlier in the 1975–1976 season and played a six-test series that was promoted as an unofficial World Championship between the two powerhouse of the game. The West Indian team as a whole struggled with discord and lack of discipline, and they lost 5-1 despite several players displaying flashes of their extraordinary talent. The tour was a "collective debacle and a personal nightmare," according to Gordon Greenidge, and there was a lot of disagreement and dissent in the dressing room and at meetings, according to Michael Holding. 

Even though the West Indies had lost confidence going into the series against India, they were helped by some mishandled scheduling, as their opponents had only two days to rest and get ready before their opening match after a 62-hour flight from New Zealand, where they had just finished a series. India consequently lost the First Test at Bridgetown and the Hosts got a much needed boost. 

However the Second Test, played on a flat wicket where the Indian batsmen felt more at home, ended in a high-scoring draw at the Queen's Park Oval in Port of Spain. Due to severe flooding, the Third Test, which was originally supposed to take place in Georgetown, Guyana, was moved to Trinidad. The West Indies were in a strong position thanks to centuries from Viv Richards and Alvin Kallicharran, and India was given a huge target of 406 to win the game. However defying all odds, India achieved this target with the help of centuries from Gundappa Viswanath and Sunil Gavaskar and thus broke the record for the highest successful fourth-inning run chase in a test match, surpassing Australia's 1948 404/3 at Headingley against England.

This was the last humiliation that Clive Lloyd was willing to allow his team to endure. Following the game, he addressed his spinners, saying, "Gentlemen, I gave you 400 runs to bowl at and you failed to bowl out the opposition." In the future, how many runs must I give you to ensure that you get the wickets? " Lloyd actually made the decision to forgo using slow bowlers. He contended that the spinners he had available were not of the necessary caliber, and that he was only obliged to use them because of custom and the requirement that a cricket team always have at least one slow bowler. He believed that the West Indian fast bowling crop of youth held the key to their strength. 

The West Indies chose a four-pronged pace attack consisting of Michael Holding, Wayne Daniel, Bernard Julien, and Vanburn Holder heading into the decisive test in Kingston. Even though the Sabina Park pitch was new and had an erratic bounce, the Indian batsmen played solid defense and ended the first day of play with a score of 178-1. The West Indian bowlers were encouraged by the grass that had grown over night, and they attacked the Indian batsmen near the wicket, concentrating on the opponents' bodies. Following Mohinder Amarnath's dismissal due to a short-pitched delivery, Viswanath was caught by a delivery that broke his finger, and Brijesh Patel was forced to retire hurt after being struck in the face. 

Then, as the assault of bouncers persisted, Anshuman Gaekwad, a tall, bespectacled batsman who had bravely batted to reach 81 not out, started to show signs of backing away to leg. He was struck on the glove and the body before a bouncer finally knocked him out by hitting him in the left ear. They had to take him to the hospital. The West Indian tactics infuriated senior players like Sunil Gavaskar and Indian captain Bishen Bedi. They believed that, in part due to pressure from the crowd, the umpires could have intervened but had chosen not to. The fact that the local audience had cheered when Holding bowled to Gaekwad and chanted "kill him" when the Indian batsman was knocked out particularly infuriated Gavaskar.  

Partly in protest, but also because he was ill-prepared to let himself and his bowling partner Chandrasekhar face the mighty West Indian quicks, Bedi declared the innings at 306/6. In the response the West Indies scored 391 in their first innings. However when India batted again in the second innings they got off to a good start but lost Amarnath, Madan Lal, and Venkataraghavan in quick succession as they were reduced to 97/5 in no time. Quite to everyone's surprise, Captain Bedi declared that the Indian innings.  He contended that five Indian batsmen should be listed as absent hurt because he and Chandrasekhar had both sustained fielding injuries. Furthermore he was also without the three batsmen who had been hit in the first innings. After taking just 11 wickets in the Test, all that remained for the West Indies was to score 13 runs to claim the victory. The Hosts chased it down in 11 deliveries and thus won the series 2-1. 

As the Indian team boarded their plane home, Wisden claimed they looked like Napoleon's troops retreating from Moscow. The Indian Cricket Board officially complained about the West Indian tactics used in the final Test, but their complaints were not answered. However a  few years later Michael Holding did confess and I quote-  "On that surface it was inevitable that some batsmen would be hit against such a pace-based attack as ours, especially as we adopted the tactic of bowling round the wicket, aiming the ball at their bodies. I was not too keen on this method since it gives the batsman little chance of avoiding a bouncer, but it was 1–1 in the series and we were under extreme public pressure to win."

Following this triumph, Clive Lloyd devised a plan that included four fast bowlers in attack. It was to prove successful in the subsequent series, a three-nil triumph over England, and lay the groundwork for the next two decades of West Indian dominance in Test Cricket.

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