The Independent Voice of West Indies Cricket

When Clive Lloyd ordered India's bloodbath at Jamaica

Mon, Apr 26, '21

 

Media Watch

April 25, 1976. The end of the bloodbath in Jamaica, which gave the West Indies victory in the series by a slim 2-1 margin. Arunabha Sengupta looks back at some of the most hostile bowling ever seen in Test cricket.

As the demoralized Indian contingent disembarked from their flight at Bombay’s Santacruz Airport, not too many fans were waiting to welcome them back. One wonders whether even the biggest diehard follower of Indian cricket could have recognized them. Battered, bruised, and beleaguered, the men could have easily been taken for a troop on the way back from Ha Noi. Life and limb had been at peril, and yards of gauze and bandages spoke about the ghastly travails.

Gundappa Viswanath had a plaster cast running from his forearm to fingers. Anshuman Gaekwad was barely recognizable; his features wrapped from chin to crown in white dressing. Brijesh Patel had three stitches on his upper lip.

Slightly less alarming, but nevertheless claimed as serious enough to prevent them from batting, were the injured fingers of skipper Bishan Bedi and his spin bowling partner Bhagwat Chandrasekhar.

Indeed, it had been as close to bombardment as it gets on the cricket field. Of the most gruesome kind. “The West Indian tactics in this Sabina Park Test were not part of the game. They were a deliberate effort to subdue us,” lamented Bedi.

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