In this week’s edition of ‘In Search of West Indies Cricket,’ Roger Seymour examines one of the most popular cricket calypsos of all time. This past week marks 45 years since India’s famous Test Match victory, over the West Indies.
As the 1970s began, India’s cricket was on the rise under the astute captaincy of the Nawab of Pataudi Jnr. In 1968, they had won their first away series, beating New Zealand, 3-1. In 1968-69, they lost 3-1, in a thrilling series to Bill Lawry’s Australians and then held New Zealand to a 1-1 draw. ‘Tiger’ Pataudi believed in playing to the team’s strengths, thus, against convention, he would routinely select a trio of spinners from the fabled quartet of Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Bishen Singh Bedi. He supported them with the best cordon of close-in fielders
