The West Indies commence their inaugural sojourn in the new ICC World Test Championship with the two Test series versus India starting with the ongoing fixture in Antigua.

In this feature, we look back at the famous 2002 series in the Caribbean when the Carl Hooper-led West Indies toppled Sourav Ganguly’s India.

Former West Indies players and coach, Ramnaresh Sarwan, Pedro Collins, Adam Sanford and Roger Harper spoke to CWI Media on their recollection of one the most notable Windies test series wins of the 2000s era.

The last time West Indies defeated India in Test cricket was in 2002, when under the coaching and captaincy leadership of Guyanese duo Roger Harper and Carl Hooper, they clinched a surprising 2-1 win that remains possibly their most significant series win this millennium.

The story of this unexpected triumph dates back to the beginning of 2001.There was some cause for cheer that season when Hooper returned to international cricket after a premature retirement in 1999. India, meanwhile, were busy pulling off their remarkable 2-1 home series Test victory versus Steve Waugh's mighty Australians.

Though far from perfect, West Indies produced many encouraging performances under Hooper and Harper between the 2001 home series against South Africa and the 2003 World Cup, and were the most stable that a West Indies Test squad team had been as a group since 1995.

In those early days of Sourav Ganguly's captaincy, India had a reputation of being lions at home and pussycats abroad, underlined by India losing a Test away in Zimbabwe after that memorable Australia series win. Still, with the players they had at their disposal, India seemed to have all the bases covered to clinch their first series victory in the Caribbean since 1971.

For West Indies coach Harper, Ramnaresh Sarwan and Pedro Collins, that India series was the highlight of their playing and coaching careers.

"Although we won the 2004 Champions Trophy, beating India that year I'd have to rank as the most memorable series I've played in for the West Indies," Sarwan said.

"West Indies wasn't winning a lot, so to win at home versus such a strong Indian team was out of this world, and it meant a lot to the people of the Caribbean," Harper said. "It was certainly a coaching highlight. It really helped to give our young team at the time some confidence that we could be competitive against top opposition."

During the drawn first Test, in Guyana, India got an early glimpse of the Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul show that would torment them in that tour.

"If batting was a beauty contest, Hooper would be Miss World," it has been said in the Caribbean, and his double-hundred in Georgetown was his most clinical Test innings since he made 178 not out against Pakistan in Antigua in 1993. The way he dominated Anil Kumble was akin to Tendulkar humbling Shane Warne in India 1998.

"Carl Hooper put a lifetime of underachievement finally and firmly behind him yesterday, appropriately on the ground he has always called home," Tony Cozier wrote at the time. He went on to refer to it as "belated vindication for the thousands of Hooper's celebrating fellow Guyanese in the stands and his host of loyal fans throughout the Caribbean who have always been adamant that it was only a matter of time, but for whom time was running short."

For Chanderpaul the series was the turning point of his career. It was then that he began to own the nickname Tiger. Before it, he had scored just two Test hundreds and 23 half-centuries from 51 Tests, at the average of 38.60. By the end of the series, he had scored three more centuries, and he averaged 57.63 over the next 13 years and 113 Tests.

Winning the second Test in Trinidad, was very significant for India, as it was the first time they had won outside the subcontinent since defeating England at Leeds 16 years previously.

Harper noted he was encouraged by what he saw from his team, especially the bowlers, in the opening two Tests and was looking forward to the final three, two of which were in Barbados and Jamaica, the bounciest wickets of the series.

It was in Bridgetown that India blew a famous chance of a win in 1997. Outside of that 1997 Test, in four of the five Tests played in Barbados from 1996 to 2001, West Indies bowled first and made major inroads in the first hour. India were shot out for 102.

Sachin Tendulkar, who had scored his 29th Test hundred in the Trinidad win to equal Donald Bradman, could not negotiate Collins.

"I was very nervous, playing what was just my second Test in front of my home crowd," recalled Collins. "Everyone in Barbados was hyped about seeing Tendulkar and I remember him getting a standing ovation coming out to bat.

"I remember I was going to my mark thinking I was bowling to the best batsman in the world, trying to stay relaxed. And the first ball I bowled at him, he edged, and that released all the pressure on me, so much that I felt the Test was over."

Dominican born Adam Sanford, recalls his favorite moment of that series in getting Tendulkar out.

“There was no Ambrose and Walsh anymore. So as a new bowling group I thought we did a tremendous job hunting as a pack”, said Sanford

“We kept getting wickets and at the right time, everyone was delighted at each other’s success and all these years later, we still keep in touch.

“My Favourite moment of that series was getting Sachin out twice, especially for a duck in the Trinidad test.”

Led by Dillon, who bowled as a true leader of the attack, West Indies' four-man pace attack in the final three Tests pulled off a reasonable imitation of the great Caribbean quartets of the '70s and '80s.

"One of things we worked on with Dillon was cutting down on his no-balls," Harper said. "He always had the ability to bowl wicket-taking balls, and everything simply was perfect for him that series."

The imitation of the hostility of the West Indies attacks of yore was underlined in the high-scoring drawn Antigua Test, where Kumble had his jaw broken by Dillon but heroically decided to battle the pain and bowl.

Harper thought the long hours India spent on the field in Antigua played a key part in West Indies winning in Jamaica. "After they spent all that time in the field, when they put us in and didn't get any early wickets at Sabina, the memories of those long hours began to tell on them as Chris Gayle and Wavell Hinds got us off to that positive start."

"With our batting, we felt once we had scored runs, we were going to be competitive, since India were still vulnerable away from home," Sarwan said. "No doubt the way Hooper and Shiv batted was the major factor in us winning that series."