Sport

Windies tour: timing is bang on

S. Ram Mahesh

OPENING UP OPTIONS: The move to make Dravid don the 'keeper's gloves gave the Indian team the flexibility to play seven batsmen. — FILE Photo: V.V. Krishnan

Chennai: The one-day leg of India's Caribbean tour is important for all the obvious reasons: it gives many in a young team their first taste of the conditions that should remain unchanged come the 2007 World Cup; it affords the side the opportunity to build a reservoir of positive memories, to coin a management phrase.

The timing is bang on, for, any scars inflicted, any slurs incurred, will have time to heal and be set right before the grandest one-day event of all. This favourable coincidence of scheduling is no one-off: India's two best World Cup performances had as their hinge ODIs in the West Indies.

The 1983 triumph, that absurd trumping of odds, was made possible because of what happened at Albion Sports Complex in Berbice, Guyana. And crucial strategy that led to the 2003 bull run to the final in South Africa was incubated in the series that ended on June 2, 2002 in the West Indies.

Historic

What occurred that March day at Berbice was historic: India's first-ever win over West Indies in ODIs.

"That definitely was the turning point (for the '83 WC win) because we got tremendous confidence that we can beat West Indies, and that we can beat the big teams," Madan Lal, who played important roles in both this win and the World Cup final, told The Hindu.

"We then started our World Cup campaign well. Most of the players started playing well, started getting into their rhythm. It helps if you keep playing the same side, and they were a great side. You get to know where to pitch the ball, how to get wickets."

Clive Lloyd inserted India in Berbice much like he did at Lord's. The visitor finished with 282 in 47 overs, 99 more than what it would get in the `83 final.

Sunil Gavaskar made a 117-ball 90 that set the platform.

Kapil blazes away

But it was Kapil Dev who turned the match on its head. Three sixes and seven fours from just 38 balls brought the skipper 72 glorious runs.

Then, Sandhu and Kapil struck early to set the scene for Vivian Richards. "Though it's been a long time, I still remember Richards's wicket," said Lal. "I clean bowled him when he was batting pretty well I think."

He most certainly was. The batting great from Antigua had reached an ominous 64 in 51 balls when Madan Lal got one through, and followed it up with Lloyd's wicket. Madan Lal would later dismiss Richards in the World Cup final courtesy a magnificent running catch from Kapil.

The influence of the 2001/02 series, on the other hand, doesn't seem as significant because the effect wasn't as immediate. Nine months elapsed between the series and the 2003 World Cup, compared to three between Berbice and Lord's. But, things that worked in South Africa — India ran up a record sequence of eight successive wins — were given shape in the Caribbean.

Question of balance

An issue Sourav Ganguly and John Wright were confronted with was balance. With no all-rounder in sight — those were days before Dhoni and Pathan — it was decided to give Rahul Dravid the big gloves. Though risky both in the narrow context of wicketkeeping ability and the broader context of Dravid copping an injury, the move opened up a spot for a seventh batsman.

Dravid took to keeping fulltime during this series (he had flirted with the job in the past) and stepped down the order to five. This released Dravid the finisher. And rounded off the skipper's evolution as a one-day batsman. He averages nearly seven runs more in matches since the '01-'02 series in the West Indies, and will consider the coming tour with no uncertain pleasure.

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