When India toured the West Indies in 1970-'71, it had won only a single series away from home, against New Zealand in 1968. Its victory against the mighty Windies was so unexpected, it came to be celebrated in song by the calypsonian, Lord Relator.
All the stars of the Indian team are name-checked: Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivasan Venkatraghavan and Bishen Singh Bedi, the boys who "could play cricket on any kind of wicket".
But the star of the series was undoubtedly Sunil Gavaskar, a debutant who made three centuries and one double century in the series. As Relator says in exasperation, "You know the West Indies couldn't out Gavaskar at all."
All the stars of the Indian team are name-checked: Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivasan Venkatraghavan and Bishen Singh Bedi, the boys who "could play cricket on any kind of wicket".
But the star of the series was undoubtedly Sunil Gavaskar, a debutant who made three centuries and one double century in the series. As Relator says in exasperation, "You know the West Indies couldn't out Gavaskar at all."
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