Tests and ODIs mixed in between the series! Confusing!

[Dinx - the Jinx]

3-0.Kanpur,ahmedabad and calcutta. Marshall doing most of the damage. holding and roberts were there along with wayne daniel and winston davis. Garner didn't come for the tour. windies also had some tough moments in the low scoringmatches at ahmedabad and calcutta but clive lloyd ,an india specialist would come up with a partnership and annoy everyone again. i remember atleast two of them with logie at ahmedabad and roberts at calcutta. then windies bowlers would come back with a vengeance and knock everyone down especially if gavaskar failed. gavaskar batted very well in the series but could not get enough support barring vengsarkar in some innings. another abiding memory from that series was catches being dropped left,rgiht and centre by india fielders. The windies batsmen were very attacking and flamboyant giving respect only to kapil dev. the crowd used to cheer for their strokeplay as well. my favourite wi batsman was larry gomes becuae he was the only one getting out without doing too much damage often! i thought someone called richie richardson was a poor batsman because he scored two zeroes in the bombay test. when he got his chance in the last ODI, i thought this is a batsman who will get out soon. guess what? he smashed our bowling to all parts. there was crowd interruptions at times becuase the crowd threw this and that . i went to the match at chepauk.that match was not as agonising. i will not forget the roar when the first wicket fell- greenidge . richards struck a full toss from shastri for six in my direction but got out in the thirties. the top order dismissed for less than 300 but the tail enders holding and marshall proved annoying. Holding killed shival yadav and the other spinners.i think he struck four or five sixes in an hour of madness .KAPIL came back and removed both of them lifting the spirits of a demoralised crowd. then marshall qucikly removed vengsarkar and gaikwad. we were 0/2.crowd expects another disaster. richards tells gavaskar who comes at 4 in this innings -"man wherever you come the score is zero" gavaskar pulls a short ball from roberts for four adn the crowd gives a huge roar. that probably inspired him. gavaskar fashions the escape with shastri and kirimani and goes onto score 236, the highest score by indian beforfe the VvS 281! he gets the hundred of davis and double hundred of andy roberts and a four off gomes bring him past vinod mankad's record. i have never forgot all these.

that is a nice recount. was this match telecast on tv? i remember watching cricket from 85/86 onwards. there used to be a test every year in january until 90s. they used to declare holiday for schools and colleges on the first day of the test. those were good days

[Dinx - the Jinx]

i thinkthe mixing of ODIs and Tests in the schedule were probably to reduce travelling across the length and breadth of the country. so after finishing a test at chennai, teams move to play an ODI in another small center before going to mumbai or delhi for the next test. in those days the more or less the same team payed both tests and ODIs and so it dint hurt. plus the approach to ODIs was not very significantly different from that of tests.

[Mamu]

So lets get this straight, from hand picking certain all-rounders who indeed proved to be worth their while now your tune has changed to Indian team not being good in the 80s. Moving goalpost already, isnt it? As for your whole rant about "India not being good in 80s" please feel free to read up my initial reply. The key verbage there is LOI and yes India was a force to be recknoned with in 80s in LOI. Unless you were sleeping through 80s of course. India won 1983 WC, 1985 World series, quite a few other LOI tournaments and were odd-on favorites for 1987 WC as well. And a lot of this had to do with the utility cricketers aka Madan Lal, Roger Binny etc. xxx

if I am not wrong a guy called 'Lurker' mentioned about India being good in the 80s, not me. All the arguments that I presented were for LOI and not tests. I did not mention it explicitly. India did not win a single LOI Bilateral Serie in the 80s. May be Sri Lanka ( not sure of that either) For every match that Binny and Madan Lal played well -- they played poorly in the next 5 - 8 of them. So if you want to classify that as people who are good, more power to you.

[youngindia]

that is a nice recount. was this match telecast on tv? i remember watching cricket from 85/86 onwards. there used to be a test every year in january until 90s. they used to declare holiday for schools and colleges on the first day of the test. those were good days

yes it was telecast on tv though i spent 4 days at the ground! the match at ahmedabad was telecast in B & W.but tests in mumbai and calcutta were live in color! infact the 1981 series vs england was on TV and that's the first time i ever watched cricket. the second day of a test used to be declared as holidays and there used to be a long gap between a cricket season.but look now how its crowded!