Tour of West Indies 1996-97        Captain: Sachin Tendulkar
	India's 37th Test tour   Seventh Test-playing tour of  West Indies by India    (February - May 1997)	The Indians had just completed a tiring and unhappy tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa when they had to fly to the Caribbean for another eleven weeks. Navjot Sidhu was exempted from attending a hearing on 15 March with regard to a murder case against the Indian opener, and the Patiala court granted him permission to travel to the West Indies. Although aged only 23, Tendulkar was not the youngest Indian skipper in the West Indies. The Nawab of Pataudi had become captain in 1961-62 when Contractor dropped out of the tour. Robin Singh was raised in the West Indies and made his first-class debut for South & Central Trinidad in 1982-3, aged 19, before moving to Madras.	Other Indian tours   Previous tour South Africa 1996-97   Next tour SriLanka 1997   Next tour of West Indies 2001-02
	Members of the Test tour  party  (16)       Opening batsmen: : Navjot Sidhu, V V S Laxman, Ajay Jadeja Middle-order batsmen: Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar,  Mohammad Azharuddin, Robin Singh Wicket-keepers: Nayan Mongia, Saba Karim. Spinners: Anil Kumble, Sunil Joshi,  Noel David (r). Fast bowlers: Dodda Ganesh, Abey Kuruvilla, Javagal Srinath (w), Venkatesh Prasad	Mohammad Azharuddin Hd 34 RHB     R S Dravid K 24 RHB     D Ganesh K 23 RM     S C Ganguly Bn 24 LHB   (RM)     A D Jadeja D 26 RHB  opener     S B Joshi K 26 SLA     S S Karim Bn 29 reserve WK     A Kumble K 26 LBG   vice-captain     A Kuruvilla Mb 28 RFM     V V S Laxman Hd 22 RHB  opener   (OB)     N R Mongia Ba 27 WK     B K V Prasad K 27 RFM     N S Sidhu Pj 33 RHB  opener     R R Singh TN 33 LHB   (RM)     J Srinath K 27 RFM     S R Tendulkar Mb 23 RHB   captain	Representation of teams:      Ba : Baroda (1) Bn:  Bengal (2) D : Delhi (1) Hd:  Hyderabad (2) K:  Karnataka (6) Mb: Mumbai (2) Pj : Punjab (1) TN: Tamil Nadu (1)             Average age of  team at time of first Test match (6 March 1997) :    27 yrs  5 months
	Test Appearances made before the tour	Azharuddin 78,  Tendulkar 48,  Sidhu 36,  Kumble 33,  Srinath 27,  Mongia 20,  Prasad 10,  Dravid 9,  Ganguly 8,  Jadeja 8,  Joshi 5,  Laxman 4,  Ganesh 2,  Kuruvilla 0,  David 0,  Karim 0,  Singh 0.
	Team Officials	D V Subba Rao Administrative manager Madan Lal Coach Dr Ali Irani Physiotherapist   Durvasula Venkata Subba Rao, a lawyer, was a former Mayor of Visakhapatnam and was for two terms President of the Andhra Pradesh Cricket Association.
	Selectors	Ramakanth Desai, chairman, and the four other national selectors - Shivlal Yadav, Kishen Rungta, Sambaran Bannerjee and M Pandove - met on 19 February  at the Cricket Club of India in Bombay.
	Selection	Skipper Tendulkar made a strong request for at least one name to be added to the touring party, but the request was turned down as the BCCI had permitted the West Indies to bring only 16 when they last toured India.   Unavailable:   Tour Party Announced : 19 February 1997.	Time between selection and departure from India   5 days  (19 February - 24 February)
	Travel	Departure from Bombay was late on Monday night 24 February 1997.  Prior to departure, the Indian team was given a pep talk by BCCI president Raj Singh Dungarpur. The Indians landed at Kingston late on Tuesday night 25 February and held a practice session at Sabina Park next afternoon in preparation for their first tour match against Jamaica.	Time spent in West Indies    68 days (25 February - 4 May)
	On-tour selection committee	Sachin Tendulkar,  manager Subba Rao,  and coach Madan Lal.
	Reinforcements	Srinath returned to India suffering from an impingement syndrome in his right shoulder. He withdrew after practice in the nets, without bowling a ball in a match.   N A David Hd 26 OB   Madan Lal tried to push the case for veteran Kanwaljit Singh. Instead Hyderabad's off-spinner Noel David was named as his replacement (‘Noel who?’, Tendulkar is believed to have asked’ - cricinfo)
	Fixtures/Results	Kingston Jamaica Drawn KINGSTON WEST INDIES First Test DRAWN PORT OF SPAIN WEST INDIES Second Test DRAWN Bridgetown Barbados Drawn BRIDGETOWN WEST INDIES  Third Test LOST 38 r ST JOHNS WEST INDIES  Fourth Test DRAWN Georgetown Guyana Won 91 r GEORGETOWN WEST INDIES  Fifth Test DRAWN † Port-of-Spain Vice-Chancellor's XI Won 32 r § Port-of-Spain West Indies (1st ODI) Lost (run rate) § Port-of-Spain West Indies (2nd ODI) Won (run rate) § St Vincent West Indies (3rd ODI) Lost 18 r § Bridgetown West Indies (4th ODI) Lost 10 w       † Somerset CC Bermuda Select XI Won 211 runs † St David's  CC Bermuda Won 6 w	§ one-day international † not first-class . Time spent in West Indies before First Test:  14 days (25 February - 6 March)
	Test appearances on tour	5 -  Azharuddin,  Dravid,  Kumble,  Kuruvilla,  Mongia,  Prasad,  Tendulkar. 4 -  Ganguly,  Joshi,  Laxman,  Sidhu. 3 - 2 -   Ganesh,  Jadeja, 1 - 0 -   David,  Karim,  Singh,  Srinath.
	Highlights	•    Kumble took 5 for 120 in the first innings of the Test series, and 5 for 104 in the next. •    Sidhu's 201 in the Second Test was the second slowest  double century in Test history (11 hours). •    Tendulkar (92), Jadeja (96) and Dravid (92) all narrowly failed to score centuries in Test series. •    Abey Kuruvilla took 5 wickets for 68 on a pitch of unevan bounce at Bridgetown. •    On the same pitch India, set 120 to win, collapsed to their lowest total in the West Indies (81).
	Tour Summary	P  W L D Aban Test Matches   5  0 1 4 - Other first-class matches   3  1 0 2 - † Minor matches   3  3 0 0 - § One-day internationals   4  1 3 0 - All Matches 15  5 4 6 -
	Return to India	Prasad flew back to India after the final one-day international (for the birth of his first child). On 4 May 1997 the team flew from Antigua to New York where they spent three days and officials met President of the Bermudan Board, Ed Bailey, to sort out visa arrangements. The Indians arrived in Bermuda from New York on Wed 7 May. They brought fifteen players (but NS Sidhu was unable to play because of torn muscle injuries). After playing two matches, the Indians departed for home on Sunday 11 May and would go straight into action in the Independence Cup. They flew from Bermuda to London and returned home on a British Airways flight to Sahar International Airport, Mumbai, on Monday night 12 May 1997. They left the next morning for Bangalore to open the four nations tournament against New Zealand.	Time away from India   77 days   (24 February to 12 May)
	Finances

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