Richie Richardson, who was in India late last year as manager of the West Indies team which lost the Test series 0-2 to the hosts, is surprised that India capitulated to a 0-4 loss against Australia recently. "Not at all," he exclaimed over the phone from the Caribbean, when asked whether he expected India to succumb to a crushing loss. "When you look at India's line-up especially the batting line-up, you would not expect that kind of a performance," said Richardson, who captained West Indies to their last Test series win Down Under -- in the Australian summer of 1992-93.


Richie Richardson

West Indies may have lost the 2011-12 series to India, but they denied Sachin Tendulkar from getting his 100th international century in those three Tests, something that their captain Darren Sammy kept saying he was hell bent on doing.

Tendulkar was dismissed for 94 in India's first innings of the third and final Test in Mumbai -- caught skipper Darren Sammy (second slip) off Ravi Rampaul. The Test ended in a thrilling draw. Before the last over of the game, India needed three runs for victory while West Indies had to get two wickets.

Back to the debacle in Australia. While Richardson was surprised to see a batting failure, he said, "don't take anything away from the Australians. They bowled exceptionally well while Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke were outstanding too. I watched the series occasionally on television so I cannot give an honest opinion on what exactly went wrong, but from what I could see, the Australians outplayed India."