India exorcise ghosts of Barbados ‘97 to lift elusive trophy

For those who grew up and watched cricket in the nineties in India, Barbados is a place where dreams are shattered. In the famous 1997 Test at the Kensington Oval, India, much to the disappointment of millions of fans back home, failed to chase down 120 against the West Indies and ended up conceding a 38-run defeat.

According to Sachin Tendulkar, it was a "dark day" in India's cricket history and the "worst day" in his career as a captain. 

India were very confident that they would go on to win the Test at the end of the penultimate day of the match. 

"Over dinner at a restaurant in St Lawrence Gap in Barbados the night before, I remember having a joke with the waiter, who was predicting a West Indian win. He was confident that Ambrose would bounce India out the next morning," Tendulkar wrote in his autobiography 'Playing It My Way'.

"I was so confident of our chances that I pointed to the fridge and said he should immediately chill a bottle of champagne and I would come and open it the next day and pour him a glass to celebrate winning the match. Instead, we collapsed for a miserable 81 all out, handing West Indies a 38-run victory."

The defeat left him so scarred that Tendulkar even contemplated moving away from the sport.

Tendulkar's long-time teammate Rahul Dravid, India's head coach for the T20 World Cup 2024, was also part of the heartbreaking Test match in Barbados.

When the players walked out to the middle, Dravid sat with a pen and paper in hand for the last time in the India dugout. Did he think of that day in Barbados from 1997? Or the unceremonious exit from the 2007 Cricket World Cup in the Caribbean where he was the captain?

Going into this match, India won just three out of 17 matches in Barbados and they were almost down and out when South Africa required only 30 off 30 balls with two of the hardest hitters of the ball Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller in the crease.

Much to the disbelief of South Africa, India managed to do the opposite of what their predecessors did in 1997. 27 years ago, Dravid and co. lost a match that they expected to win. On Saturday, his boys snatched the victory from the jaws of defeat.

There was a social media campaign called "Do it for Dravid" but he didn't want the narrative to be centered around him, saying it was "against his values". 

"It's totally against who I am as a person. And totally against my values. You know, I don't really believe in this 'Do it for somebody'. I love that quote about somebody asking someone 'Why do you want to climb Mount Everest?' and he said, 'I want to climb Mount Everest just because it's there'. And why do we want to win this World Cup? Because it's there," he told Star Sports ahead of the final.

It was, in the end, a fitting farewell for Dravid and also batting maestro Virat Kohli who announced his retirement from T20Is after lifting his first T20 World Cup. 

India, under Dravid and Rohit Sharma, came close to winning quite a few trophies of late but failed in the knockouts. 

They were beaten by England in the T20 World Cup semifinals in 2022. Australia got the better of them in the 2023 World Test Championship and the World Cup final. It was quite fitting that Dravid, who never won a World Cup as a player, ended his India coaching career with a major silverware. 

And most importantly, India's incredible triumph at the Kensington Oval on Saturday will probably somewhat heal the wounds sustained in 1997 in Barbados.