BBC SPORT | Cricket | Specials | West Indies v India

Ajit Wadekar is the only Indian captain to win a Test series in the Caribbean. BBC Sport Online's Rakesh Sharma asks him about that triumphant tour.

Q: You won your maiden series as captain against West Indies no less. How do you regard this achievement now?

A: We were rated as the worst side to go abroad and its captain one of the most inexperienced.

I thought we did pretty well in the sense that we were up against star players like Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd, Charlie Davis,Vanburn Holder, Roy Fredericks to name a few.

With a little planning and strategy, we were determined to do something for the team and country, and that is how we were able to succeed.

Q: How significant was the contribution of two of your Bombay boys - Dilip Sardesai and Sunil Gavaskar?

A: It was Dilip Sardesai in the first Test match when we lost five wickets cheaply and he stood there along with (Eknath) Solkar and (Erapalli) Prasanna and managed to get a double hundred against that attack. So that gave us a lot of confidence.

From the next Test match, it was Sunil Gavaskar, who like a Don Bradman replica, kept making runs and breaking records.

These two batsmen really helped us amass runs and allowed our bowlers like Bishen Bedi, Prasanna and Venkataraghavan to bowl out the opposition.

Wadekar and his teammates wave to their supporters
Celebrating victory over England, The Oval 1971
Q: Then you beat England in England and in India the following season (1972-3). What was your recipe for such stupendous success?

A: I don't think there was an exact recipe or formula. In that phase we were in a winning mood - for the Indian team, it does'nt last too long!

We win a few times and lose many times. Three test series wins in a row, that was something great in the history of Indian cricket.

I think we meshed and stayed together and, more importantly,we played well within ourselves, within our limitations.Then we put a lot of emphasis on catching.

If you drop a catch of a Kanhai, a Sobers, or a Luckhurst, then you've had it because they will make you pay dearly by continuing to hit runs. We thought we would improve on catching and keep it sharp.

Finally, Test cricket is a five day game and we made sure that we played for five days and did not get skittled out in three or four days.

Q: You mentioned your spinners, Bedi, Prasanna and Venkataraghavan. Were they the ones responsible for tilting the balance for you?

A: Basically, we worked on our strengths. You analyse your strengths and weaknesses against the opposition. Our strength, without doubt, was our spinners. Second were batsmen like Gavaskar and Sardesai.

Here I am speaking of the West Indies. In England things were different.There everyone contributed as far as batting was concerned. And there we had another match winner - BS Chandrasekhar.

He was simply superb.They were not able to read him.That is how we won at the Oval. But all said and done, we looked and played like a team and the results were there for everyone to see.

Former Indian off-spinner Srinivas Venkataraghavan
Venkat is now one of the game's leading umpires
Q: But then followed the debacle of 1974. How do you explain that?

A: It happens.Take the West Indies now - they were at the top of world cricket not long ago.

Australia is at the top now with an even more awesome record than the West Indies, but they lost to India in India.That's cricket.

You are right, however. It was a debacle in England. We just could not get used to the climatic conditions - possibly we may have been a bit over-confident.

It was a very cold early summer in England and all of us used to the hot sub-continent just could not come to grips with the conditions.

Our winning streak had to break and we had to lose somewhere but not as badly as we did. These are not excuses,we needed to find some way to get acclimatised to the cold. But it affected our game. That's what happened - we lost and we lost pretty badly.

Q: Ajit, why is it that as a batsman you were successful against the Australians, New Zealand and against England, but not against the West Indians?

A: Yes, the first Test I played against them, I was a flop. It was only in the third Test against them that I got runs - I had'nt played against West Indies in the Caribbean before the 1971 series.

In England, however, I got adjusted to the conditions well just as I was able to do earlier in Australia and in New Zealand. It is a question of how quickly you can get acclimatised and adjusted to the conditions.

Against West Indies in the Caribbean, it was a bit difficult to get adjusted, and because I was captaining the side there for the first time, that weighed on me.

In course of time, I got used to captaining the side and started getting runs.

Lara reaches a century against England
Lara is the star of the West Indies team
Q: How do you assess the present West Indian side?

A: It certainly is not a good side now. They have been losing one series after another.They have one outstanding player, Brian Lara, but of late, he has been prone to injury.

Unlike our team, they don't have senior players except for Carl Hooper and Chanderpaul.The rest are young and inexperienced. They do not look a good side to me and perhaps India should do well against them.

Q: So you rate India's chances against them?

A: To me, it seems 80/20 - India should not miss this opportunity. They should gear up and all players should give 100 per cent.

In cricket you cannot take any team lightly. Anything can happen, just one bad session and you've had it.

That bad session is what you have to guard against as captain. One bad session can cost you a match and a Test series.