Thus, come February 1997, India will tour the Carribbean for five Tests, and four one-day internationals, as per the schedule released by West Indies Cricket Board secretary Andrew Sealy.
It is welcome news, this, indicating that for once, the Indian cricketing establishment appears to have got its head screwed on the right way.
Critical analysis of India's recent disastrous showing against England has repeatedly made the point that a surfeit of one- day games appears to have had an adverse effect on the footwork and strokeplay of India's frontline batsmen. Sachin Tendulkar getting out twice, when well set, to the short arm pull from outside off stump is one example, Ajay Jadeja's persistent efforts to glide opening bowlers through the slip cordon in the early overs is another, Mohammad Azharuddin's repeated dismissals caught close to the wicket on the leg side as he attempted to glide deliveries pitching on or outside off a third...
A statistic that is particularly relevant in this context is this: that since the 1992 World Cup to this present, India has played only 23 Tests (including two totally rained out Tests versus New Zealand in 1995). Contrast this with the figures pertaining to some other Test-playing nations: South Africa has played 28 Tests (despite having returned to the international cricketing fold only at the turn of the decade), Pakistan has 31 Tests (not counting the three Test series against England beginning Thursday), one-day champions Sri Lanka, which in recent times has been grumbling at the ICC forums about not getting enough Test matches, has played 32, New Zealand has 34 Tests (including the two rained out ones), England has 43, Australia 44.
In other words, India comes last in the table of Test-playing nations in this regard. Thanks, in large part, to the policies of the Board of Control for Cricket in India which, having found a lucrative source in the one-day game, has of late been inviting teams over for five and six one-dayers with a couple of Tests thrown in by way of afterthought.
What Indian cricket has been needing for a while now is a better balance - and the upcoming five Test series is, if not the solution to India's cricketing ills, at least a beginning.
The tour schedule, as released, has some marked departures from the norm. Thus, for the first time in the West Indies there will be no rest day for the Tests (except for the third Test in Barbados, when the teams will take a break on Good Friday). Then again, the four one-day internationals will follow, and not precede, the Test series - a very welcome precedent, as it puts the emphasis where it belongs, on the longer version of the game.
Interestingly this tour, and the subsequent two-Test, three onedayers series against the visiting Sri Lankans, marks the first time the Windies have organised more than five Tests and five one-dayers, or even hosted more than one team, in a season.
Both India and the West Indies will be taking each other on after completing tough away tours elsewhere. The Windies, for instance, would have ended a three month tour of Australia earlier in February 1997 - a tour that will encompass five Tests, and a minimum of eight one-day internationals in the World Series tournament.
India, for its part, will complete on February 11 a tour of South Africa in course of which it will play three Tests and seven one-day internationals.
The schedule for the tour, as announced in Barbados on Tuesday, runs thus:
February 28-March 3: India versus unannounced opponents in Jamaica March 6-10: First Test in Jamaica March 14-18: Second Test at Trinidad March 22-24: Warm up game against as yet unnanounced opponents, at Barbados March 27-April 1: Third Test at Barbados (March 28 will be a rest day on account of Good Friday) April 4-8: Fourth Test in Anigua April 11-14: Four day match against as yet unnanounced opponents April 17-21: Fifth Test in Guyana. April 26: First one-day international, in Trinidad. April 27: Second ODI in Trinidad April 30: Third ODI, in St Vincent May 3: Fourth ODI, in Barbados