Salim Durani: Indian cricketās original maverick
The chatter around Nick Kyrgiosā unfulfilled potential got us thinking about the mavericks that exist in Indian sport and a name that instantly comes to mind is Salim Durani.
Duraniās relatively short career of 29 Tests was strewn with indelible moments like the series-winning spells in the 1961-1962 Test series against England (Indiaās first series win against England), the blistering century in Port of Spain that same year, the sublime knock in the Irani Cup final that saw the commentator declare that the trophy be renamed the Durani Cup and of course, the wickets of Clive Lloyd and Gary Sobers that sparked Indiaās historic comeback in the 71ā tour of West Indies.
And yet in an interview with ESPNCricinfo, Tiger Patuadi said the following about him: āHe was an extremely talented cricketer who lacked a certain amount of cricketing discipline. We tried to organize itāme and a few other senior players. But we didnāt succeed. He did well, but a man of his talent could have been made to perform much betterā.
Duraniās stories are part of Indian cricketing folklore. Like Kyrgios, he too was ambidextrous and it was Vinoo Mankad who convinced him to become a left-arm bowler and would tie up his right hand to ensure the same. Mankad had a role to play in Duraniās move from Saurashtra to Rajasthan too. After seeing him play in a match, the Maharaja of Udaipur told Mankad (who played for Rajasthan) to ask Durani if he would play for his state. Durani duly obliged.
While it was his batting that won impressed the Maharaja of Udaipur, some of his most memorable moments with the Indian team came with the ball. The first came against Australia at Eden Gardens in 1964, when in sweltering conditions captain Pataudi inexplicably decided to bowl first. While Pataudi himself wasnāt convinced about the decision, he had made it on the insistence of Durani who said the pitch suited him. At lunch, Australia were cruising at 92 -0, with openers Bobby Simpson and Bill Lawry tonking the ball with such ferocity that fielders were taking their hands off. In the break, the team were piling in to Durani for his decision to bowl but Pataudi, outwardly seemed unfazed. Smoking a cigarette by the pavilion gate as they got ready to take the field, he heard Duraniās voice call out to him āNawab Saab! Mujhe ball dijiyeā. He indicated with his hands that he would take five wickets. He was wrong; he took six.
But, perhaps Duraniās most iconic moment came in the 1971 tour of West Indies, where he was making his comeback to the Indian team after five years. The 2nd Test at Trinidad was finely poised going into the 4th day. While India had taken a healthy lead, West Indies had begun well in the 2nd innings and were coasting 150-2 at the end of Day 3. Hereās how GR Viswanath describes the scene in the Indian camp that evening in his autobiography.
We were having a drink in Ajit's (Wadekar) room at the end of the third day's play when Salim Durani walked in. He straightaway asked Ajit if he could have a drink; he loved his drink or two in the evenings and it was standard practice in the West Indies for all of us to assemble in Ajit's room and unwind."
"Just then he said, 'I will get you Lloyd and Sobers tomorrow in two overs'. All of us were surprised and looked at him as he continued, 'Just give me the ball when Lloyd is on strike and even if someone else picks up the non-striker at that point, don't bother continuing with him and throw me the ball against Sobersā,"
Durani hadnāt bowled a single over in the first innings and Wadekar had forgotten all about him at the start of play on Day 4. ML Jaisimha, who wasnāt playing that match, came onto the field with the 12th man to remind Wadekar about Durani. The left-arm spinner was true to his word and dismissed both Lloyd and Sobers in the space of a few balls. The two dismissals began West Indiesā collapse and they set a meagre total of 124 for India to chase, which they did easily!
The first Indian to play in the Champions League
Indian forward Manisha Kalyan was nicknamed āDinhoā by her friends because of the likeness in her playing and hairstyle with Brazilian forward Ronaldinho. She embraced the moniker to such an extent that when she first created her Instagram account, she picked the username āMKDā (Manisha Kalyan Dinho).
So, there was something poetic about the fact that āDinhoā became the first Indian to score a goal against Brazil in November last year. It was a fitting end to a year that also saw her win the AIFF Emerging Player Award and also become the first Indian to score a goal in the AFC Womenās Club Championship for Gokulam Kerala.
But, her tryst with history doesnāt end there. Earlier this month, Kalyan sealed a transfer to Cypriot champions Apollon Ladies and will soon become the first Indian to play in the UEFA Champions League. Only eight Indians have played in foreign leagues and Kalyan is the third female footballer to do so after Aditi Chauhan and Bala Devi. While the menās goalkeeper Gurpreet Sandhu has made an appearance in the Europa League, no Indian has played in Europeās premier competition. Manisha Kalyan is on the brink of doing something seismic.
While her journey to the top has been rapid, it has been anything but easy. Hailing from Punjabās Mugowal district, Kalyan was the only girl from her village who played football. Her flair for the game was spotted by the PE teacher at the government school who saw her running circles around the boys while playing barefoot.
Stunned by her talent, he had her enrolled at the government run academy in Mahilpur. The academy was 15km away and Kalyan has spoken about how she would walk that distance on most days. Her father owned a small cosmetics store and given the familyās precarious financial situation, was reluctant to let his daughter pursue football as a career. The same PE coach who spotted Kalyanās talent spent a month trying to bring his father around.
āI asked him what was stopping him from letting his daughter play football. He said he canāt afford to buy her sports shoes. I told him not to worry as money will never become a hurdle in Manishaās career, and finally, I had his permission,ā the PE coach Singh said in an interview to Indian Express.
Societal pressure was as much of an obstacle to Kalyanās footballing ambitions as the financial burden.
āNeighbours and relatives used to taunt my parents. They used to tell him that his daughter plays with boys, she wears shorts. My parents were exposed to such scornful comments from society that anyone would get mentally scarred. But both my father and mother had a strong belief in coach sir, and they just kept ignoring it,ā Kalyan said.
That belief has led Kalyan all the way to Europe. From playing barefoot in a government school ground to the Champions League, itās been quite a journey. And, this is just the start for Kalyan.
Person of Interest
Last week, para athlete Bhavina Patel took to Twitter to announce that she has become the #1 ranked table-tennis player in mixed doubles, class 4. The climb in rankings came on the back of her showing at the recent ITTF Fa40 Egypt Para Open 2022, where she won the singles gold and also won two medals in the mixed doubles events.
This was her first title since her historic silver medal, the first medal for an Indian TT player, at the Tokyo Paralympics last year. She is only the 2nd ever woman to have a won a medal at the Paralympics. The world #1 ranking is the perfect confidence boost for Patel ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where para table tennis will be played for the first time in the tournamentās history.
Patel competes in the Class 4 category, which is for participants who have good seated balance and completely functional arms and hands. Their handicap may be caused by a lower spinal-cord lesion or cerebral palsy.
She was diagnosed with polio at the age of one and has been in a wheelchair since. She didnāt play table tennis until completing high school and her foray into the sport began at the Blind Peopleās Association, where she was doing a ITI computer course. At BPA, Bhavina met coach Lalan Doshi, who remains her mentor to date. She won a bronze medal at a competition in her first year of playing the sport and soon took up table tennis professionally.
Patel won her first title in 2009 at the National Championships in Bangalore and her first international medal came at the Para Table Tennis Thailand Open in 2011. She has represented India at the 2018 Para Asian Games and has won over two dozen medals nationally and internationally.
Patel has been well supported in her career by her parents, who sold their cutlery shop and moved to Ahmedabad ahead of the Tokyo Paralympics to help her remain focused on her training for the event.
āI have seen her go through a lot of struggle, due to lack of basic facilities for persons with disabilities. She had to go out of her way and do certain things. She has had to change buses, hop into autorickshaws, or sit and use the staircase as lifts were not available at certain places. She is so determined that she never gives up. That fire in her belly is one of the reasons I fell in love with her.ā
Husband Nikun Patel on Bhavinaās drive
Not all help has come in human form, though. During the pandemic, Bhavina purchased a second hand robot for INR 50,000 and would practice for hours on end with it at home. After being inducted into the governmentās TOPS scheme, she was provided with a robot worth INR 2.80 lakh!
Direct Hits
Often times, reality is stranger than fiction. The story about how a village in Gujarat duped a bunch of Russian punters by creating a fake IPL is a testament to this.
We donāt what our favourite part of this crazy story is - the labourers who were paid Rs.400 to double up as cricketers, the HD cameras that were purchased to broadcast the games on a YouTube channel called āIPLā, the commentator mimicking Harsha Bhogle or the fake umpire who was given a walkie-talkie to communicate with the fraudsters.
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