Who was the first Indian to score a Test hundred in the West Indies?
(09 April 2002)

Polly Umrigar holds a very special place in Indian cricket. Before the arrival of Sunil Gavaskar, he held the records for the most Test runs and most Test centuries by an Indian. In this context, it might seem surprising that, when India went to the Carribean for the first time in 1953, not too many people expected him to do well.

They had their reasons; Polly’s first overseas tour had been an unmitigated disaster, with him scoring just 43 runs in eight visits to the crease.

By the second day of the first Test of the Caribbean tour, played at Port-of-Spain from 21-28 January 1953, however, Umrigar had done enough to wipe out the memories of his blighted journey to Old Blighty. His 130, made with the aid of just two fours, was the innings around which the Indian first-innings total of 417 was built. It also ensured that India played out two of the six days of the match, a fact that was to prove vital in securing a draw despite a double ton from West Indian run machine Everton Weekes.

Umrigar went on to score yet another hundred in the final Test of the five-match series, which India lost 1-0. His 560 runs at an average of 62.22 made him the undoubted star as far as the visitors were concerned.