I remember that famous victory in 1976. The angle of my story is not to say this victory is not nice.

The point I tried to make is that we have not played regularly enough against NZL to say that it has come after 33 years.

Yes, we have won few tests only overseas. That is because in many of those tests Gavaskar and Tendulkar scored their centuries Had Viswanath, Dravid and Ganguly scored as many hundreds India would have won more matches abroad. (Just pulling your leg since you referred our school arguments of Sunny V. Vishy).

The actual reason for our lesser number of victories abroad is not lack of talent but lack of exposure to technology in the olden days. The current generation has greater access to technology and coaching and also the money power to go and practice in foreign land. How often have we heard Indian players taking part in the local leagues just before start of a test series so that they can get themselves acclimatised? Prior to this series I think Dravid, Laxman and few others got that opportunity.

But I feel that this is too much hyped. If you talk about this victory is great then I will have to counter about the nature of the current NZL team which is very young and inexperienced.

There appears some bias. The victory is sweet not only for the fact that it comes after 33 years but it is one of 32 victories abroad. We have far too little abroad.

Your bias carried from school times : Gavaskar Vs Vishwanath is also exhibited. If at all Indian bowlers had some total to back them, it was provided by the solid Gavaskar who scored most of his runs in foreign countries.

Though we would have played much less against Kiwis, fact remains that during many a series we were wiped out and after 1976-77, though better teams toured, we were unable to win in Newzealand. In 1976 they had the prolific Glenn Turner who had scored two centuries in the inaugural WC and the redoubtable Richard Hadlee who sliced through us in the third test. Incidentally, the first test which we won was captained by Sunny (though Bedi was the tour captain). Surinder, Kirmani and Vengsarkar made their debuts – with the aggressive stylish Surinder scoring a ton on debut. He got a raw deal later is another moot point.

Did you know that we played two One dayers in that tour which were infact were 8 ball each 35 over matches.

Those were the days when we studied in Hindu High School and could get some detail from ‘The Hindu’ paper on a later date or from knowledgeable Triplicane elders.

With regards – S Sampathkumar
PS: I share with my group some of my writings and have mailed you my article on this win as also IPL and host of other cricketing issues

Thanks for pointing out. I have corrected the error with credits to you in the post .

Coming to the players omitted, I should not have overlooked Jerermy Coney; he was one of my favorites and an amazing batsman. I should also mentioned Lance Cairns the big hitter with no parallel.

I however, do not think Jeffe Crowe is of the same caliber as his brother Martin Crowe. For the same reason I didn’t also include Geoff Howarth, who played till he walked with bat in one hand and the walking stick in the other

@Vijay,

Though Sachin has played for 20 long years and has achieved a lot, one cannot write down Sunny’s performances. He was probably the neatest and most technically correct batsman that India has ever produced in my opinion. You can differ from that!

I should probably call like the Englishmen – Little Master – I (Gavaskar) and Little Master – III (Sachin Tendulkar). I will give the title of Little Master II to Gundappa Viswanath – my all time favorite for sheer artistry.

e.g- aus v eng, s.a v aus and recently ind v aus.

some of the great players nz have ever produced are Ian Smith(w.k), Jeremy Coney and Jeff Crowe.

Geoff Lawson actually played for Australia. Pl correct it.

In the olden days atleast we used to make it a point to tour New Zealand whenever we toured Australia, combining the tour schedules. Now, since BCCI has become more monied and since travel is not that great a hassle, we seem to have deliberately ignored touring the Kiwis regularly. It might be because the BCCI thinks that a series against Australia, England or Pakistan gives more revenues than a tour to New Zealand.//
well said.

This thinking is also proved by the fact that we have not been playing many matches even against Sri Lanka which is nearer home – we have played just 29 tests in 26 years..//

yeah.. we have the same feeling..