The Carribean Affair

India and the West Indies have a long and concurrent history in the cricketing world. Both these cricket playing entities learnt the game from their erstwhile British rulers in the 19th century and gained Test status around the same time. On June 23, 1928, the West Indies, still under the colonial rule, became the 4th cricketing entity to play Test when they took on the mighty England at Lords. Exactly four years and 2 days later, on June 25th, India, still under the British raj, became the 6th nation to play Test cricket at the same venue. Interestingly, Douglas Jardine, the man who had made his debut in the maiden Test of the West Indies, was the captain of his side when England took on CK Nayudu’s boys at that historic Lord’s Test of 1932. After playing their first Test series in Australia, India’s first-ever home series post-independence came against the Caribbean side in 1948-49. Since then the India-West Indies rivalry has become a very intense affair with the battle between the Indian batters and the Caribbean pace batters take center stage.