Muslim Cricketers of India

Muslim cricketers of India by Kishin R. Wadwaney
Siddharth Publications. Pages: 239. Price: Rs. 500/-

Arun Jaitley, in his foreword to the book, rightly observes that the subject is unconventional because successful sportsmen are national heroes. Who can forget Salim Durrani hitting sixers at will just because the public demanded it? Or the debonair Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi instilling self-belief among the amateurish Indian cricket team, leading it to, till then, unheard of victories? Kirmani’s exploits behind the wickets too are well known.
However, this book is as much about individual players as of India’s cricket history in the making. It starts with the pre-partition days – when Hindus and Muslims played together as “colleagues, if not friends” in the test team. The author acknowledges, “A Muslim (player in Indian team) is loyal to his side; he is faithful to his colleagues on field of play…”
Along with glimpses of intrigues in various pre-and-post-partition test teams the author gives brief bio-sketches, as well as the individual players’ performance statistics. It is the latter that makes for interesting reading. For example, Abbas Ali Baig’s magnificent century on debut during India’s 1959 England tour is etched as much on the connoisseurs’ mindscapes as in the annals of Indian cricket.
There are other Muslim players who are titans of Indian cricket on the basis of sheer merit, like Nissar, Mushtaq, and Iftikar during the pre-partition days and Azharuddin, Syed Kirmani etc in the post-partition days. And today Zaheer and the Pathan brothers are already national icons. As “cricket is more than a game – it is an institution” it transcends all socio-economic-ethnic and religious stratifications.
Despite the communal tinge to the title the book is a useful addition to the Indian cricket’s ever-evolving history.

THE TRIBUNE