India and the West Indies have an eloquent history of cricketing encounters against each other, and the "Utsav Zone" celebrates just that. Moments of glory, performances to cherish, matches to remember for a lifetime - we pick them out from the 70 Tests and 66 one-dayers these two teams have fought over. Packaged together, the "Utsav Zone" presents you genuine cause to celebrate the sport's rich and hoary past.

The birth of a little master

Well, not the birth per se, of course; that happened on July 10, 1949. We mean it more metaphorically - the discovery of a batsman who would go on to become, arguably, India's greatest ever as well as one of the world's foremost openers. Sunil Gavaskar may have been born and bred in Bombay, but his flowering at the international level - surely a cause for celebration in Indian cricket - occurred in the West Indies in 1971.

In those heady days of talent like Roy Fredericks, Rohan Kanhai, Clive Lloyd and Garry Sobers, even drawing a Test in the West Indies was an achievement, and India managed that in the first match at Kingston, Jamaica. In the second, Gavaskar's debut at Port-of-Spain, Bishen Singh Bedi and Erapalli Prasanna combined to dismiss their opponents for just 214 in the first innings.

And then, kicking off the Indian reply, a dumpy figure in flannels strode to the crease with Ashok Mankad.

The real star of the innings may have been Jack Noreiga and his nine wickets, or even Dilip Sardesai with his 112, but Gavaskar made 65 - noteworthy for a youngster in his baptism by fire. Srinivas Venkataraghavan took five wickets after India made 352, and India were set a target of 124 runs.

As younger fans will recall, such a target evaded India on their last tour of the Caribbean, but then again, they didn't have the grit of a Gavaskar. The rookie hit an unbeaten 67, including the winning runs, that took India to a watershed triumph in the West Indies.

As if to further to prove his mettle, Gavaskar struck his maiden hundred in the very next Test - at Georgetown, Guyana - making 116 that helped India draw the match. The visitors won a historic series on the back of the Port-of-Spain victory, and Gavaskar aggregated 774 runs in four Tests. India had found their feet in the West Indies, and their fans had found a hero.

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