" ABID - WHY DO NOT YOU OPEN THE INNINGS, YOU ARE WASTING YOURSELF BY BATTING IN LOWER ORDER - HANIF MOHAMMED , 1969
History is PIECE
and history is the OCEAN WHICH KEEPS ON FLOWING. When written on a
paper it becomes a PIECE that remains ever scripted on a piece of paper , and
when allowed to be spoken about , it becomes an OCEAN for the people to talk
about it
There are many a PIECE about this cricketer whom we call it ABID
ALI who passed away on March 12th 2025 after he fell to
the vicous delivery of the time and that was the end of a glorious innings of
life of this LION HEARTED CRICKETER.
Abid for ONE was the MOST
UNDER UTILISED and the most FEARLESS FIGHTER as far as
cricket is concerned. His talent was RICH
and his BEST could not be reaped by any Indian cricket captain,
except M.L. JAISIMHA wholed him in the Ranji Trophy for
Hyderabad and who led him in the Duleep Trophy for South Zone.
1968 – ABID FINDS A PLACE IN THE INDIAN SQUAD
It was the twin tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1968
when Abid found a place in the Indian squad to tour Australia and New Zealand .At
Australia India lost the series by 0-4 , however ot was Abil Ali who stole the
show for India . His performance in the batting was as under- ::
|
1967-1968 |
4 |
8 |
- |
299 |
81 |
37.3 7 |
53.48 |
- |
2 |
- |
His bowling was as follow- ::
|
1967-1968 |
4 |
7 |
73.0 |
5 |
302 |
8 |
6/55 |
37.75 |
3.10 |
Abid Ali in the next series was played against New Zealand
at Home and after the Nsagpur Test match he was dropped inspite of scoring a
worthwhile and a glorious innings of 63 at Nagpur where India ;lost the TEST to
New Zealand. He was there for the Hyderabad Test match but after the series he
was dropped.
The ensuing series saw Abid regaining his place against the
West – Indies but aagainst Australia at
home, after the India – Australia series in 1969 , he was not in the
Indian squad to take on the Aussies.
At West – Indies he has his share as India had won the
series by 1-0.His performance brought him to the forefront to the England
sojourn where India had won the Test
series by 1-0 . His contribution was good and he played in all the three
Test at England in that 1-0 series win.
ABID WAS IN AND
OUT OF THE INDIAN TEAM.
Abid was NEVER given a permanent spot in the Indian squad
right after the Test series win over New Zealand in 1968. Though we won that series by 3-1, and with that India
marked the habit of winning a series
abroad, as that was the first occasion that India had won her first Test series
abroad, Abid place in the Indian team
was never granted.
His contribution use to be useful . He would clip and chip
in with a few wickets. His first Test at Australia in the very first innings
that he bowled for India got him SIX wickets in the first. He
infact had captured 47 TEST wickets, in the 27 Tests that he played. He
would contribute very meaningful runs in the lower order. Infact he scored 1018
runs for India in the 27 Tests that he played. What was more. HE
WAS A BRILIANT FIELDER BOTH AT THE BACKWARD SHORT LEG, AT THE FORWARD SHORT LEG
AND AT THE COVER REGION.
His brilliant fielding always would enable India to save
atleast 20 runs every innings, for that was his contribution to the fielding.
Abid was FIGHTING
– LION – HEARTED cricketer. Infact the GREAT GARY SOBERS,
always rated him as the TWO MOST FIERY INDIAN CRICKETER the
other one being Salim Durrani , who would put Sobers to go back to the shell
and carry on the fight to the camp of the enemy.
Abid Ali would bat when India would need the most from him
to dig the opponent and their dreams and he was a NEVER – TO – GET – TIRED
of a classic cricketer. He would bowl spells after spells for his team and
never would he cave in when it came to the fielding. His innings had something
very different to be described about.
ABID ALI AND SOME OF HIS INNINGS - ::
Some of the innings that he palyed are very HARD
and very SIMPLE to describe. The hardest part of the description
is that he played the most SIMPLEST innings at the
hardest OCASSION, and the simplest part of it was that the
HARDEST moments were made to look so easy when he played those occasion.
Just look into it. Never in the mindset of being even
considered to be selected in the team for the First World Cup , he scored a 73
against New Zealand, which remained the HIGHEST score by any Indian in the
World Cup till 1979 when Gundappa Vishvanath overtook that score with a
masterly complied 75 against the West Indies in the 1979 World Cup. That was
overtaken by Yashpal Sharma for his 89 against The West Indies and by Kapil Dev
who scored that unbeaten 175 against Zimbabwe in 1983.
His innings of 73 against England in 1974 in the First Test
at Manchester where he ran out of partner . He plastered Bob Willis and Mike
Hendricks, to reduce them to NOUGHT before running out of
partner , he had to throw his wicket. Had Sunil Gavaskar not being run – our
for 101 perhaps Abid who was partnering Gavaskar till then and was batting at
about 45, would have, in the company of Gavaskar, scored his FIRST
TEST TON.
The 45 to 73 those 28 runs perhaps remains at ONE
OF THE MOST PIECE OF OSTENTATIOUS
in batting for India in her Test history. Has Abid got those 27 runs
needed, and had Gavaskar not being ousted in the term of run – out perhaps
India might have saved that Test match and perhaps would have lost that series
by 2-0 rather than 3-0.
His innings of 63 when he had opened the
innings with CHETAN CHAUHAN AT Nagput against New Zealand was
the KNOCK of the India New Zealand series after that 48
runs in that innings by Ambar Roy .The manner in which he faced the New Zealand
pace trio, of Richard Colinge , Richard Hadllee, and Dayle Hadlee was somethimg
which always would flow in the eye of the connoisseurs , who had seen him
batting then on that day.
HIS MOST GREATEST COMPLIMENTS
- ::
Pakistan were celebrating their FIRST EVER SEMI SILVER JUBILEE OF THEIR
FIRST TEST SERIES VICTORY in 1969. They had won their first ever series abroad, at England in 1954 and they were celebrating that series win by playing an exhibition international match. For that occasion they invited
Gary Sobers, Rohan Kanhai , from West Indies, Saeed Ahmed Hattea and Abid Ali
from India and Bob Cottam from England to play for an invitational team which
also included their Hanif Mohammed to play for that team. The other team
was a Pakistan Test team which had
everybody from Majid Khan to Asif Masood.
Abid was asked to open with Hanif Mohammed in that match for their team. He did that in style and scored a fluent- flowing 64 laced with 12 boundaries to add 120 runs for the first wicket opening partnership with Hanif. When he completed his fifty in that matcg , Hanif went upto him and said him - ::
WHY DO NOT YOU OPEN FOR INDIA AS BATTING IN THE LOWER ORDER FOR THEM HAS WASTED YOUR CRICKET AND YOUR BATTING LIKE NOTHING ELSE FOR EVERYTHING. Well that match was washed by rain , but not before when the Pakistani team came out to bat, they had lost four wickets with the score reading 27/4 with Saeed Ahmed Hattea claiming the first three and Abid the FOURTH one in the form of ZAHEER ABBAS
ABID AS A
SPORTSMAN - ::
He was a WORKAHOLIC .Till 1979 when he
had some hopes of getting back to the Indian team, he always would be seen at
the Lal Bahadur Shashtri Stadium at Hyderabad running for about one hour every
day, then bowling at the nets for another one hour and then batting for the
another one. He would then practice fielding for the next one hour. He strongly
had made his presence felt when he scored that 63 as an lower down bat , top
scoring in that innings, against England against Bob Willis, Mike Selvey and
then returning with that bowling analysis of –
Abid Ali 32 2
100 4
He scored a very fighting 36 against the North Zone in their Duleep Trophy match he was atleast expecting to be back into the Indian squad for their Austrlian sojourn of 1977-78 . However the team led by Bishen Singh Bedi and managed by Ram Prakash Mehra had another notion. They selected Madanlal for that tour. Had Abid been selected in place of Madanlal belive me India would have won that first Test where they lost it by 16 runs and would have won that run chase of 494 runs, where they lost that match by 47 runs.
Madanlal was a miserable star for India in batting in that series and his inexpertise to adjust to the Australian wickets really made him a rabbit of the Aussies pacers which was spearheaded by Jeff Thomson. An expert to handle that kind of a pace in the Australian wicket with Abid in the taem would have made the task easier for India. THAT IS FOR SURE.
ABID SCENARIO AND SCENES IN INDIAN CRICKET
The first of such a moment came in 1971, March 10th 1971 to be exact. India needed 124 runs to win that match.Ashok Mankad and Gavaskar put on about 68 runs for the first wicket .India then soon became 74 for three , losing Dilip Sardesai and Salim Durrani and the score was 74 for three.
Promoted in the batting, Abid added an unbeaten 50 for the fourth wicket with Gavaskar scoring an unbeaten 21. What was more?
Pic - :; March 10th 1971 , Sir Gary Sobers congrajulating Abid Ali, after he scored and unbeaten 21 and added fifty runs with Sunil Gavaskar , to help India win that match and also allow Sunil Gavaskar to score the winning hit
HE BLOCKED 15 DELIVERIES AT A STRETCH TO ALLOW SUNIL GAVASKAR, PLAYING HIS MAIDEN TEST OF HIS CAREER, TO HIT THAT WINNING RUNS. THAT WAS HIS SPORTSMANSHIP.
That was for the FIRST occasion, that India had defeated the West - Indies to win a TEST match at the Caribbean beside the series.
The second such scene was at the OVAL , on August 24th 1971. He square drove Brian Luckhurst to the square of the wicket on the off-side to hit that winning run which enabled India to win that match and the series.
THAT WAS THE FIRST EVER OCCASION THAT INDIA HAD BEATEN ENGLAND IN A TEST MATCH AS WELL AS IN THE TEST SERIES AT ENGLAND.
ABID AND HIS LIFE - ::
Still, he has NOT been conferred the LIFE TIME COL C. K . NAYUDU AWARD
by the B.C.C.I and the WORST part of it was when his son whoo was married
to Syed Kirmani’s daughter was killed at a road accident at U.S.A where he was serving in a top ranked U.S
IT firm.
A tremendous fit cricketer, an epitome of stamina, a pillar
to stand for the team he played his game for, Abid Ali was a TRUE
GENTLEMAN, A TRUE SPORTSMAN AND A LION ON THE PROWL , A TRUE
NATIONALIST who played this game for India and for his team .
HE WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERD
FOR FIGHTING LIKE A " LION " ON THE CRICKET FIELD.
That Is It and that speaks all about it
Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored SEVEN books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta in 2012, GOLDEN QUOTES on INSPIRATION , SORROW , PEACE and LIFE published by B.F.C Publications, Lucknow, , and QUOTES:: Evolution and Origin of Management Electives by Clever Fox Publishing, Chennai ,From Dhyan To Dhan :: Indian Hockey - Sudden Death Or Extra Time published by BOOKS CLINIC Publishing House , Bilaspur , Chattisgarh and his FIRST book on Hindi poem, which reads as " BHED HAI GEHRA - BAAT JARA SI " and MIDAS TOUCH AND MIRACLES OF INDIAN SPORTS , published by Books Clinics , Bilaspur , Chhattisgarh,
He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing , and Business Analytics .
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