Salim Durani bowled fans over

Sumit Paul

The game of cricket has had some exceptionally colourful characters such as Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Ian Botham, spin wizard Shane Warne and our Salim Durani, who shuffled off this mortal coil on April 2. I first met Salim in the UK. My doctor father, who was a cricket enthusiast and an amateur cricketer, took me to Cardiff in Wales, where the debonair player came to watch a friendly match. He was past 70, yet he looked fit as a fiddle and his regal gait was unchanged.

Unlike some arrogant cricketers of today, Salim was humility personified. He spoke with everyone and gave his autograph. Whether a groundsman or an MCC official, he treated everyone with love, cordiality and equality.

My father had already met Salim as he would spend his Sundays watching cricket matches all over England. Once he ran into Salim and his friend Sobers at a tavern in Bath, Somerset.

All-rounders Salim and Sobers (now 86) were alike on many counts. They were southpaws, bowling slow left-arm orthodox and batting left-handed. Their approach to the game was also similar. Both legends believed in fair play and were perfect gentlemen on and off the field.

I again met Salim in Pune in 2008. He was smoking and was surrounded by a bevy of elegant socialites. He was very popular with women. Dashing and dynamic cricketers such as Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, ML Jaisimha and Abbas Ali Baig had female fans swooning over them, but our Salim bhai always stood out because of his aura and extraordinarily good looks. He acted in two Hindi films as well, opposite Tanuja (Ek Masoom) and Parveen Babi (Charitra).

Though he played only 29 Tests, Salim left an indelible impression on the game, the players and spectators. He was perhaps the only batsman in the history of the game who hit sixes on demand! Alas, T20 cricket, which was tailor-made for his flamboyant style, came decades after he had retired.

‘Maine khel ko khel ki tarah khela’ (I played the game the way it should be played), he would often say. He played the game in a spirited manner and never got into any controversy. His magnanimity is well-known. Sunil Gavaskar will vouch for that.

A proud Afghani, the Kabul-born cricketer didn’t ask for financial help even when he fell upon the thorns of life and bled, to paraphrase PB Shelley. He lived life on his own terms and never compromised. Such luminous characters are a rarity in our times.

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