Syed Abid Ali (born 9 September 1941) is a former

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

Indian cricketer The India men's national cricket team, also known as Team India or the Men in Blue, represents India in men's international cricket. It is governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and is a Full Member of the International ...

. He was a lower order batsman and a medium pace bowler. He played an important role in Indian cricket in the 1960s and 70s.

Early life

Abid Ali attended the St. George's Grammar School and All Saints High School in Hyderabad. In 1956, he was picked to play for Hyderabad Schools by the selectors, who were impressed by his fielding. He scored 82 against Kerala and won the best fielder's prize. A few years later when State Bank of Hyderabad formed a cricket team, he was given a job there. He started off as a

wicket keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. ...

before becoming a bowler.

Playing career

Abid made it to the Hyderabad junior side in 1958–59 and the state

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

team in the next year. He hardly bowled in the first few years and did not score his first Ranji hundred till 1967. He was unexpectedly picked for the team to tour

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and

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that year. He made it to the team for the first Test against

possibly in the place of the captain M. A. K. Pataudi who dropped out injured. Abid scored 33 in both innings and took 6 wickets for 55, the best by Indian on debut at this point. Sent in to open the batting in the third Test, he hit 47. This was followed by innings of 81 and 78 in the final Test. Abid was the non-striker when

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ ; born 10 July 1949), is an Indian cricket commentator and former cricketer who represented India and Bombay from 1971 to 1987. Gavaskar is acknowledged as one of the grea ...

scored the winning runs against the

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in the

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Test of 1971. When

tried to chase a difficult target in the final Test of the series, Abid bowled

Rohan Kanhai Rohan Babulal Kanhai (born 26 December 1935) is a Guyanese former cricketer of Tamil Indo-Guyanese origin , who represented the West Indies in 79 Test matches. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai fea ...

and Garry Sobers in consecutive balls. A few months later, he hit the winning boundary when India defeated

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by four wickets at the Oval. In the

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Test of the same series, he took the first four wickets for 19 runs before lunch on the first day to reduce England to 4 for 41. He played nine more Test matches, and scored 70 runs against New Zealand in the 1975 World Cup. He continued to play first class cricket for four more years. Abid Ali scored more than 2000 runs and took over hundred wickets for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy. His highest individual score was 173 not out against Kerala in 1968-69 and his best bowling was 6 for 23 against

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

the Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

in 1974.

Coaching career

Abid coached the junior team of Hyderabad for a few years, before moving to California in 1980. He coached Maldives in late 1990s and UAE between 2002 and 2005. Before coaching UAE, he trained the Andhra team that won the South Zone league in

in 2001-02. He currently continues to reside in California, where he now coaches promising youngsters at the Stanford Cricket Academy.V. V. Subrahmanyam, ''Abid needs help'',

Sportstar ''Sportstar'' is an Indian monthly sports magazine published in India by the publishers of '' The Hindu''. Its headquarters is in Chennai. History and profile ''Sportstar'' was established in 1978. The magazine covers international sports, i ...

, 4 March 200

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Personal life

Obituaries for Abid Ali appeared in the media in the early 1990s; in fact he survived Coronary artery bypass surgery, heart bypass surgery. His death was mistakenly announced on the air by

Farokh Engineer Farokh Maneksha Engineer (born 25 February 1938) is an Indian former cricketer. He played 46 Test matches for India, played first-class cricket for Bombay in India from 1959 to 1975 and for Lancashire County Cricket Club in England from 196 ...

. He has two children, a daughter and a son. He resides in the US.

References

Bibliography

* Sujit Mukherjee, ''Matched winners'', Orient Longman (1996), p 76-90 * Christopher Martin-Jenkins, ''Who's Who of Test Cricketers''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abid Ali, Syed 1941 births Cricketers at the 1975 Cricket World Cup Hyderabad cricketers India One Day International cricketers India Test cricketers Indian cricketers South Zone cricketers State Bank of India cricketers Living people Telugu people Cricketers who have taken five wickets on Test debut Coaches of the United Arab Emirates national cricket team Indian cricket coaches Cricketers from Hyderabad, India Alumni of All Saints High School, Hyderabad