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ALLOW this to be an emotional tribute to the memory of Syed Abid Ali, cricket hero of one’s childhood when cricket was played as a gentleman’s game.
Abid Ali, who passed away at 83 in California last week, played cricket as an all-rounder and had all the attributes of the fine gentleman that he was. Making his Test debut against Australia in Brisbane, Abid Ali revealed his bowling prowess. In his first-ever Test match, he claimed six wickets for 55 runs, a remarkable feat that announced his arrival on the international stage.
In the same Australia series, enthusiasts recall, he displayed his batting skills at Sydney, scoring two gritty half-centuries (78 and 81), proving his worth as a complete all-rounder. His ability to contribute in both departments was only matched by his hawk-like close-in fielding.
Commentator Harsha Bhogle’s impromptu TV tribute to the low-profile former Indian star from Hyderabad brought a lump in the throat. Bhogle did so by speaking from the heart, without embellishing his words or watching out for today’s polarised Indian audiences. He recalled how his school friends in Hyderabad spoke of their hero as ‘chacha’, a term of respect accorded to older men in the family. Likewise, they bade him farewell with a ‘khuda hafiz’, culturally a Muslim expression for adieu but which had been shared across communities in India.
In Narendra Modi’s era, in particular, it was refreshing to hear of a Muslim hero remembered with adulation and respect, though Abid Ali probably never saw himself as anything other than a proud Indian team player first and last. Nevertheless, Bhogle’s words were a healing balm, not only for Muslim admirers of Abid Ali but also for India’s culturally inclusive men and women who are currently under assault. There’s so much misgiving; one craves for relief, and it came as Bhogle’s tribute to his childhood cricket icon.
In Narendra Modi’s era, it was refreshing to hear of a Muslim hero remembered with respect.
Bhogle spoke emotionally of the time when, as a schoolkid, he changed two buses to reach the Hyderabad stadium in time to catch Abid Ali bowl his first ball to Sunil Gavaskar in a Ranji Trophy match. (I, too, changed buses to see Abid Ali bowl to Vijay Manjrekar at Lucknow’s Sheesh Mahal Summer Tournament.)
In 1971 when the Indian team toured the West Indies, there were several players from Hyderabad — Abid Ali, of course, and D. Govindaraj, M.L. Jaisimha, K. Jayantilal and wicket-keeper P. Krishnamurthy. That year remains etched in cricketing memory, however, for the magic that arrived for Indian cricket in the form of Sunil Gavaskar.
A heart-tugging fact about the match at Port of Spain that India won against the mighty Windies on their turf has remained buried under the cornucopia of strokes that Gavaskar played in both innings. It was left to Gavaskar to himself remember how Abid Ali refused to hit the winning stroke in the match, when, instead, he walked over to the non-striker’s end with a single.
“It’s your right young man, to hit the winning stroke. You’ve played an amazing game,” the senior teammate from Hyderabad patted the debutant from Mumbai on the shoulder.
On another occasion, it fell to Abid Ali again to hit the winning stroke, this time at The Oval to beat England in England in 1971. Gundappa Vishwanath had lost his wicket searching for the winning run. In came Ali at number eight. Faroukh Engineer, a charismatic batsman of his time, walked up to Abid Ali, asking he take a single.
Engineer was denied the pleasure of the winning stroke by an apparently irritated Abid Ali, who hit the ball to the boundary for a memorable victory. Years later, Ali would slam Engineer’s eagerness to take the winning strike as just the wrong spirit for a team. “We play as a team. Not for individual glory,” Abid Ali would tell an interviewer.
He was demonstrative in an age when most bowlers tended to hide their emotions, contemporaries acknowledge. Ali was once no-balled for throwing in a Test match against New Zealand in Christchurch, according to ESPN, but his deliberate chucking apparently came in protest against Gary Bartlett having taken a six-wicket haul with an action that the Indian team is said to have deemed suspect.
“Abid Ali never went on to establish himself as a premier name in Indian cricket, partly because he had the misfortune of being a bowler in the era of India’s famous spin quartet,” ESPN said in a tribute.
Cricket has undergone radical changes since Abid Ali’s days, and Indian teams have won many major contests in different categories of cricket. But how does the country wish to play the game in the future given that the current phase is passing through a disturbing moment of narrow nationalism and gilded lumpenism?
The Indian team won the Champion’s Trophy in Dubai recently in a contest that should have taken place in Pakistan. Playing in Dubai and not in any match in Pakistan where everyone else played, was an assertion that India could get away with money power. We are told that India’s assertion was based on a legal contract, which, however, was not reflective of the spirit of the game. There’s not a single team in the tournament that delighted in Indians not stirring from Dubai.
Cricket history is replete with ‘legal’ events that were nevertheless offensive to the spirit of the game. Does Indian cricket wish to be likened to Jardine’s bodyline bowling, which was a perfectly legal way to deal with the opponent, except that it violated the spirit of the game?
The rules were promptly changed and bodyline declared unacceptable. Or does India need to be equated with the obnoxious memory of Australia’s Chappell brothers who denied New Zealand a win by bowling an underarm ball to make it unplayable. Trevor Chappell bowled what was then a legal delivery but legal only in an underhand way. Cricketing legends like Abid Ali would probably frown on this zeal to win at any cost.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2025
