Syed Abid Ali
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A brief biography
Shiva Gundra, March 13, 2025: The Times of India
From: Shiva Gundra, March 13, 2025: The Times of India
Hyderabad : Syed Abid Ali was a former Test cricketer of the 1960s and ’70s Indian team.
Old timers aver that Abid Ali was so versatile that he could open the bowling, batting, was an excellent fielder and he could also keep wickets — a prototype cricketer of the limited-overs game that belonged in the far future. He actually started as a wicketkeeper. He aggregated 8732 runs in 212 first-class matches with 13 centuries and claimed 397 wickets with 14 fifers.
Having caught the eye in local circles for his fielding prowess at school in St. George’s Grammar and All Saints’ — later made more famous by Mohammed Azharuddin — Abid Ali made the Hyderabad Schools team in 1956 before making his first-class debut for Hyderabad in 1959-60.
He was part of an excellent band of cricketers from Hyderabad that included MAK Pataudi, ML Jaisimha and Abbas Ali Baig, and a regular in the State Bank team, a veritable Indian team then with the likes of Ajit Wadekar and GR Viswanath, at the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup.
One of the rare people to have read their own obituaries — former teammate Farokh Engineer once mistakenly announced his death following a heart bypass surgery on air in 1996 — Abid Ali made instant impact on his Test debut, against Australia in Adelaide in 1967-68, claiming 5/55, then the best by an Indian debutant. He opened the batting in Brisbane, scored 47 and 81 and 78 in Sydney.
With great emphasis on fitness when it was far from fashionable, Abid Ali scored 1018 runs and claimed 47 wickets in 29 Tests between 1967-1974. He was part of the team for the 1975 World Cup.
Abid Ali was the non-striker when Test debtuant Gavaskar hit the winning runs in Port-of-Spain as India scripted their first-ever Test series win in the West Indies in 1971. Months later, Abid Ali would do the honours himself, hitting the winning runs in the third Test at the Oval for India’s first series win in England — a glorious chapter in Indian cricket history under the leadership of the late Ajit Wadekar.
“Very sad news. He was a lion-hearted cricketer who did anything the team needed,” said Gavaskar of his ’70s India teammate, “Despite being an allrounder who batted in the middle order, he opened the batting when needed. Took some incredible catches in the leg cordon adding a sharp edge to our wonderful spin quartet. As a new ball bowler, he has the unique record of getting a wicket with the first ball of a Test match twice if memory serves me right. He was a thorough gentleman with impeccable manners.”
After retiring — his last Test was against the West Indies in Delhi in 1974 — Abid Ali coached the Hyderabad junior team before shifting to California in 1980. “Abid bhai made northern California his home,” Northern California Cricket Association said, “For someone who played at the highest level, he had no airs about turning up for local league cricket in 1980s and 1990s. World cricket has lost a true cricketing gem.”
