The team India created history in 1976 by successfully chasing down a mammoth fourth-innings target of 403 against the formidable West Indies. The West Indians opted for a horses for courses policy by fielding three spinners but the Indians cruised home to victory with centuries from Sunil Gavaskar and G. R. Vishwanath. India came to this fateful third Test at Port-of-Spain after being outplayed in the first match of the four-Test series at Barbados. They had come close to winning the second Test at the Queen’s Park Oval, but West Indies salvaged a draw thanks to some dubious umpiring decisions. Batting first, West Indies managed 359 with Bhagwat Chandrasekhar claiming six victims. In reply, India could manage only 228 in the face of a hostile spell of fast bowling by Michael Holding. With a lead of 131, West Indies went on to set up a target of 403 thanks to Alvin Kalicharan’s eight Test hundred. Right from the beginning India looked on track as openers Gavaskar and Gaekwad batted sensibly and saw off the new ball attack. As the final day wore on, India inched close to victory with Gundappa Vishwanath hitting a fighting century in the company of Mahinder Amarnath.The tactics used by west indies has been handled beautifully by indians
The India’s 1983 cricket World Cup victory over the mighty West Indies is widely acknowledged as the defining moment in the history of Indian cricket. Under the spirited leadership of Kapil Dev, a determined Indian team exploited the English conditions to clinch the coveted title. India made their intentions pretty clear by shocking the favorites West Indies in their campaign opener. In their next match, India thrashed the minnows Zimbabwe with Madan Lal playing a pivotal role. However the euphoria over the successive wins was short lived as India was dealt out a 162 run thrashing from Australia just two days later. India’s second Group match against Zimbabwe unfolded high drama. Batting first, India was looking down the barrel with five wickets down for just 17 runs on board. But skipper Kapil Dev chose the occasion to lead by example and his whirlwind knock of 175 set the stage for a memorable Indian victory. The final raised the specter of an Indian humiliation in the hands of the Goliaths of world cricket, the West Indies. Even though India had beaten West Indies in the group stage, the wise and knowledgeable of the game predicted a comprehensive win for the Indies.But India managed to pull it off.
India achieved its first ever Test victory in 1951-52 when it beat England in Madras. Having made its Test debut in 1932, India had to wait for 20 long years in the sidelines before making its mark in the big stage. In that eventful year, India also recorded its maiden series triumph against Pakistan. In this historic match legendary batsman Vijay Hazare led the Indian contingent while his English counterpart was Donald Carr. With England sitting pretty on a 1-0 lead, the Indian team was looking to restore parity in this final Test of the five match series. The England team won the toss and elected to bat. Thanks to an inspired bowling performance by Vinoo Mankad, the English team was bowled out for 266 with Mankad grabbing eight wickets. India replied with a mammoth total of 457, riding piggyback on fine centuries by Pankaj Roy and Polly Umrigar. On a pitch that was breaking up and spinning, India bowled out England for a paltry 183 in the second innings, to win the Test by an innings and eight runs. Mankad and Ghulam Ahmed shared the spoils with four wickets apiece. Even though England was missing the services of some key players, nothing can take the sheen off India’s emphatic first ever Test victory.
After this, 2 members of the Calcutta Cricket Club were allowed by the Imperial Cricket Conference to attend the ICC meetings at Lord’s on 31st of May and 28th of July 1926. Chairman of the ICC, Lord Harris himself granted this permission. Although, this permission was granted upon a condition that an administrative body for the control of Cricket in India would soon be formed.
After the directive had been passed by the ICC, a number of Cricket bodies in India started interacting with them and discussing about the formation of a central Cricket body in the nation. All the Cricket associations of India agreed upon the belief that a central administrative organization for the control of Cricket in India was very essential for improvement of the sport in the country. On the 27th of November 1927, a group of 45 people representing the Cricket associations located in different parts of India got together at the Roshnara Club in Delhi to take some concrete initiatives towards the formation of such an association. It was decided that the headquarters of the association will remain at Delhi itself. The group requested W.J.Cullen and J.E.McDonell to temporarily hold the positions of Honorary Joint Secretaries of the provincial board.
Board of Control for Cricket in Inida (BCCI) is the governing body which is responsible for administration of all Cricket related activities in the country. These activities range from selection process, training, organization of the championships and arrangement of funds from the sponsors. The BCCI is a non government society, and has been registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act. Although the board is not a Government of India enterprise, due to the huge popularity of Cricket in India, it is a very richorganization and undoubtedly the wealthiest sport association of the country. The level of strength and influence possessed by the BCCI can be well understood from the fact that even the biggest political shots have to try very hard in order to grab the coveted seat of the Chairman of BCCI. The history of Cricket in India dates back to the Eighteenth Century, still no administrative body for management of the sport in the county was constituted till a long time. It was only after the World War I ended in the year 1918 that such an effort was thought upon. Even before that the Maharaja of Patiala sponsored and himself captained an Indian Cricket team which visited England. The team comprised the best Cricket players India had at that time.
The decade of 1980’s saw the Indian Cricket team scaling new heights in the One Day International (ODI) Cricket, and under the captainship of Kapil Dev, the team even managed to grab the 1983 Cricket World Cup. A number of accomplished players such as Kapil Dev, Madan Lal and Mahinder Amarnath made their presence felt during the decade. If there has to be taken one name for whom the 1990’s decade of Indian Cricket shall always be remembered, it would surely be none other than the same of Sachin Tendulkar. Still playing for team India and considered to be one of the All Time Greatests of the World Cricket, Sachin simply outclassed every other Batsman’s record, and the saga still lingers on. Apart from Sachin, some other wonderful Cricket players such as Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly and Javagal Srinath emerged in the Indian Cricket team in the decade of 1990’s, and paid their contribution in getting the Indian team clinching several international championships during the period. The Cricket team of India continued to show its brilliant performance in the new millennium, and the new youthful squad has seen some new faces and remarkable victories. The new talented players who joined the team include Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the new captain of the Indian Cricket team both in Test Cricket and One Day International (ODI) Cricket, S.Sreesanth, Munaf Patel, Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir, Irfan Pathan and Yousuf Pathan among others.
Continuing its presence in the International Cricket arena, Maharaj Kumar of Vizianagaram (real name Lt. Col. Sir Vijayananda Gajapathi Raju) formed his own team of accomplished Cricket players including Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe. The team visited Ceylon and played some matches in India too during 1930-31. After gaining independence, India made its first ever Test Series victory against the arch rival Cricket team of Pakistan in the year 1952. The victory gave a great boost to the game in the nation, as some of the All Time Gems of the Indian Cricket showed their remarkable skills during this Test Series. These players included Vijay Manjarekar, S.M.Gupte and Polly Umrigar. Over the next decade of 1960’s the Indian Cricket team proved its strength upon the home ground as well as upon foreign pitches too. During this decade, the team defeated New Zealand and stretched the matches with teams such as England, Australia and Pakistan to a draw. During the decade of 1970’s, the Indian Cricket team got one of its most cherished possessions of all times – The Spin Quartet comprising of E.Prasanna, B.S.Chandrasekhar, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Bishan Singh Bedi. Apart from them, the Indian Cricket team also got two of its most gifted Batsmen of all times during the decade of 1970’s itself – Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath.
Bombay Presidency Matches were played since 1892-93 till 1906-07. In the year 1907-08 the name of these matches was changed to Bombay Triangular Matches, which continued till the year 1911-12. Since the year 1912-13 the Matches came to be known as Bombay Quadrangular Matches, only to be changed again in the year 1937-38 into Bombay Pentangular Matches. Ranji Trophy was yet another leg of First Class Matches in Indian Cricket, which began in the year 1934-35 and still continues today. The Bombay team was the winner of first two Ranji Trophy championships. As far as the presence of Indian team in the international Cricket arena is concerned, the team played the MCC tour since October 1926 till February 1927. Within the tour, the Indian team played 26 First Class matches in India and 4 First Class Matches in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Captain of the team was Arthur Gilligan, which included Andy Sandham, Arthur Dolphin, Bob Wyatt, George Geary, Ewart Astill, George Brown and Maurice Leyland as the other players. The Indian team started playing Test Cricket in the English Season of the year 1932. The team played against the English team at Lord’s Cricket Ground. The English team defeated the Indian team in the match by 158 runs.The cricket was at its best at that time
Cricket, now termed as the unofficial national sport of India, has got an old history associated with its existence in the country. The oldest references to the sport in India can be dated as early as the year 1725 when some sailors played a friendly match at a seaport in Kutch. By the year 1792, the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club had been formed, and a yet another Cricket club had been formed at Seringapatam by the year 1799. As far as the beginning of First Class Cricket in India is concerned, it was marked by a match played between Madras and Calcutta in the year 1864. In the year 1877, the Bombay Presidency Match was played for the first time. Later, it first changed into the Bombay Triangular and then the Bombay Quadrangular. In the year 1892-93 it was awarded with the First Class status. In the year 1889-90 an English team arrived at India. The captain of this team was George Vernon, which eventually was the first foreign Cricket team to arrive India, although the matches that it played over here are not considered to be First Class Cricket matches. In the year 1892-93 two matches had been played between Europeans team and Parsees team at Bombay (now Mumbai) and Poona (now Pune).
To rope in more funds, PHL has four sessions each of 17.5 minutes. This format has been proved beneficial in two ways – firstly more breaks would mean more advertising time and eventually more funds. Secondly, these time outs are extremely beneficial for the teams as they can chalk out new strategies during the course of the game to defeat their opponent.In case, the match results in a deadlock even after the full time, the number of players of each team is gradually reduced till a result is obtained. Talking about the point system, a win within the stipulated time earns the winning team 3 points. However, a win after the full time fetches 2 points to the winning team and one to the losing team. In the course of the game, every team is allowed to field up to five international players. Another inventive feature added to PHL is the penalty shootout competition, modeled on grounds of the Major League Soccer penalty shootout. In the penalty shootout competition, 5 members of each team play against the goal keeper of the opponent team, one at a time. Just when the umpire blows the whistle, each player would have a total of 8 seconds in which he has to score a goal, with only the goal keeper defending the goal.