Cricket was brought to India by the British in the early 1700s but in 1848 the Parsi community in Mumbai formed the first Indian cricket club. In the early 1900s some Indians like Ranjit Singhji and Duleep Singhji played county cricket in England. The Imperial Cricket Council first invited India in 1926 and India made her debut as a Test cricket playing nation in 1932 under CK Nayudu. The Indian team's first Test victory came against England in Madras in 1952 and their first Test series win came against Pakistan later that same year. However the Indian team truly reached their full potential in the 1970s with the advent of the Spin Quartet and two all-time great batsmen.
The Spin Quartet of Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkatraghavan, Bhagwat Chandrashekhar and Bishen Singh helped India to many Test victories. In 225 matches played amongst them they shared about 800 Test wickets. It was also the time when Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath made their presence felt in the Indian cricketing scenario. However Indian team's ODI success truly came in the 1980s when players like Kapil Dev, Mohammed Azharuddin, Dilip Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri made their presence felt at the international level.
Batsmen like Azharuddin and Vengsarkar and all rounder Ravi Shastri helped India become a strong ODI team and under the captaincy of Kapil Dev India won the World Cup in 1983. The 80s also saw the two greats, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, reach the heights of their career. Gavaskar made a record 34 centuries in Test cricket and became the first cricketer to reach the 10000-runs mark. During the same time Kapil Dev became the highest wicket taker in Test cricket with 434 Test wickets. During these times, Indian cricket also saw a period of unstable leadership with Gavaskar and Kapil Dev often exchanging the captaincy between them.
The period from the 70's to the 80's also saw the rise of other talented cricketers whose contribution to Indian cricket is nothing less. They include the likes of Dilip Vengsarkar who along with Gavaskar had become one of the best batsmen in the country from the late 70's to the late 80's. He scored 8 centuries from 16 Tests but his most noted performance was against the English at Lord's where he scored 3 centuries.
Roger Binny was another versatile all rounder who had the capability of rescuing India in times of crises. Ravi Shastri was another excellent utility all rounder whose commitment and hard work was very admirable.
Mohinder Amarnath was an extremely gritty cricketer whose determination and perseverance made him the master of comebacks. In his eventful career he is most remembered as the hero behind India's World Cup victory in 1983.
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