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Expert view Former Test cricketer Syed Abid Ali

Syed Abid Ali, the gutsy all-rounder from Hyderabad, was rather pushed into the team to replace the then Indian captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, who opted out due to injury, in the first Test against Australia, 1967-68. He not only made the Australians struggle to claim six for 55 runs on debut, but also scored 33 runs in each innings. He surprised the Australians with his pace and bounce. He followed his heroic debut with a brisk 47 in the third Test when he was sent in to open the innings, and his first ten scoring shots being 4,3,2,4,4,3,3,4,4,4. This was followed by scores of 81 and 78 in the final Test.

Abid Ali played significant roles in India’s first-ever wins in the West Indies and in England in 1971. In the final Test of the historic series against the West Indies, he clean bowled the legends Rohan Kanhai and Gary Sobers with in-dipping yorkers (then called shooters) with successive deliveries. His heroics made cricketing greats like Frank Tyson and Gary Sobers walk up to him with a few words of appreciation. The former international cricketer has now donned the role of a coach.

He divides the game of cricket into three departments: Batting, bowling and fielding. “I give maximum importance to fielding. If the fielding is good, then even an ordinary side looks formidable. And to be a good fielder one should give emphasis to fitness. A good fielder stands out from the rest of the crowd,” he says.

Himself an electrifying fielder in his days, in a way he justifies the omission of a few senior players from the ODI side on the basis of poor fielding abilities. “A complete cricketer is the one who is good at any one of the departments in addition to fielding. A specialist batsman should essentially be a good fielder and similarly a specialist bowler should also be a good fielder. Look at Eknath Solkar, Ricky Ponting, Jonty Rhodes, Yuvraj Singh or Michael Clarke; they stand out mainly because of their fielding abilities. I am in total support of Sunil’s (Gavaskar) criticism of Munaf Patel. Fielding is an art and one has to enjoy it,” he points out.

Tears welled up on the veteran cricketer’s eyes while speaking about his cricketing days and his team mates. I am in touch with most of them like Bishen (Bedi), Prasanna (Erapalli) and Tiger (Pataudi), but I personally miss Jai (M.L. Jaisimha).

He holds Jai in high esteem and considers his former state (Hyderabad) captain as the shrewdest cricketing brain he has ever come across.

Though he now lives in the U.S. with his family and shuttles down on short coaching assignments, he wishes to start his own academy and settle down in India permanently. “It is time that I give back something to the game,” says the 67-year-old Abid Ali.

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