By the late sixties and early seventies, the great West Indian side of
the decade had broken up, but by 1974, the rebuilding process had been
completed, and it was a strong and confident side that came to India
during the winter. Clive Lloyd took over the captaincy and the side
bristled with brilliant young stroke players in Gordon Greenidge, Roy
Fredericks, Lawrence Rowe, Vivian Richards and Alvin Kallicharran. In
addition, they had fine all-rounders in Bernard Julien and Keith Boyce
and a fearsome pace bowler in Andy Roberts while veteran Lance Gibbs,
at 40 was still around to shoulder the spin burden.

© ICC |
Even as the West Indies had completed their rebuilding process, India
were going through a turbulent period. In England in 1974, India had
been routed in all three Tests and a few seamy happenings off the
field added to the already clouded atmosphere. As the team approached
the series against the West Indies, they could not have been in a
confident frame of mind, particularly since Ajit Wadekar suddenly
announced his retirement and the Indian Cricket Board slapped a one
Test ban on Bishen Bedi for airing controversial views during an
unauthorised TV interview in England.
The selectors had to find a new captain and they fell back on Mansur
Ali Khan Pataudi. But while leading India in the first Test at
Bangalore, which was lost by 267 runs, Pataudi was injured. A
temporary replacement had to be found for the second Test at New Delhi
and the selectors' choice was Sunil Gavaskar. But the opening batsman
was injured in a Ranji Trophy game and this led to utter confusion as
to who would lead India since the captain had not been appointed even
on the night before the commencement of the Test.
Ultimately, S Venkatraghavan was chosen to lead the team on the
morning of the match. But the change of captaincy did not result in a
change of fortunes and India lost by an innings and 17 runs their
fifth successive defeat in the space of six months - to go two down in
the series.
At this stage, interest in the series declined and a 5-0 rout was
predicted. The West Indian batsmen had made hay with Greenidge,
Richards, Lloyd and Kallicharran making hundreds while Roberts with
his pace, Vanburn Holder with his cut and swing and Gibbs with his off
spin had mowed down the Indian batting. There seemed a lack of
fighting spirit in the home team.
Astonishingly, however, India won the next two Tests to draw level in
the series. And they did so without the services of Gavaskar, who was
still on the injured list. The architect of this turn about was
Gundappa Viswanath.
With scores of 52 and 139 at Calcutta and 97 not out and 46 at Madras,
he more than anyone else helped shaped victories by 85 runs and 100
runs. The spin trio of Bedi, Prasanna and Chandrasekhar weaved
patterns around the West Indian batsmen and suddenly the visitors
looked very vulnerable. They were also timely contributions from new
players like Madan Lal, Anshuman Gaekwad and Karsan Ghavri and this
offset the poor form of Pataudi. But if Pataudi's reflexes had
considerably slowed down - this was his last series - he displayed
shrewdness and skill in his captaincy, a notable factor in India's
fightback.
Predictably enough, there was tremendous interest in the decider to be
played at the brand new Wankhede stadium in Bombay. Could India
emulate the feat of Australia in 1936-37 as the only side to come from
0-2 down to win a five-Test series? The answer was emphatically
answered in the negative by the West Indies who ran up a total of 604
for six declared on the third morning after a minor riot interrupted
play on the second evening. Lloyd hammered an unbeaten 242 while
Fredericks got his second hundred of the series.
Despite some fine batting by Gavaskar, Viswanath, Gaekwad and Eknath
Solkar, who posted his only Test century, India just about managed to
avoid the follow on and the West Indies had plenty of time to coast to
victory by 201 runs in the decisive Test, played over six days.
While the batting certainly played its part in the West Indies'
triumph, the most vital role was the pace bowling of Roberts who with
32 wickets, set a record for IndiaWest Indies matches. Gibbs showed
that he had lost none of his old magic in taking 21 wickets.
But India too came out with flying colours, thanks principally to the
batting of Viswanath who finished with 568 runs in the series. He
strode like a colossus, emphasised by the fact that the next highest
aggregate was Farokh Engineer's 222. The spinners, handled in adroit
fashion by Pataudi, too had a major hand in India's gallant showing.
Also, the fact that all five Tests produced results in India, where
pitches were reputedly slow and heavily loaded in favour of the
batsmen, did not go unnoticed. Indeed, it was a series in which the
accent was on attack even as negative tactics were generally shunned.