Syed Abid Ali

Abid Ali had the feet of a sprinter, the energy of a marathon runner and the will of a decathlete, but his misfortune was that he was born 20 years too early. His game was made to order for one-day cricket: he bowled brisk medium-pace, fielded outstandingly, and was a busy lower-order batsman who ran between the wickets as if on invisible skates. On his Test debut against Australia at Brisbane in 1967-68, he took a memorable 6 for 55, but Abid Ali was forever destined to play choirboy to India's famous spin quartet. In the same series, he scored 78 and 81 at Sydney, a performance that earned high praise from Jack Fingleton, the noted Australian cricketer-turned-journalist. His career ended abruptly when he was at his peak, after he had top-scored with 70 from No. 7 and taken 2 for 35 against New Zealand in the 1975 World Cup. A bizarre postscript to this premature curtailment came when Abid Ali had the dubious pleasure of reading his own obituary after Farokh Engineer mistakenly announced his death on the air.

Syed Abid Ali: lover of calypso, and the life and soul of a party