Born in Kabul but playing cricket for India, Salim Durrani will always be remembered as Shehzade Salim of Indian cricket because of his style, personality and ability to hit sixes on the demand of the audience. Every cricket lover who witnessed the infancy of Indian cricket in the sixties and seventies would remember how the spectators in the ground used to demand sixes from Durrani and he never broke their hearts. Around 90,000 spectators at Eden Gardens used to shout ‘sixer sixer’ at the top of their lungs as the legend dispatched the next ball over long on or deep mid-wicket.
Sunil Gavaskar once wrote that if Salim Durrani were to write an autobiography, it would be titled ‘Ask Four a Six’. Hardil Aziz Durrani’s dominance cannot be measured by the 29 Tests he played between 1960 and 1973, nor by the 1200 runs he took or the 75 wickets he took. The only century in his career, thrice five wickets in an innings and an average of 25 does not tell the whole story. Durrani, 88, breathed his last on Sunday, marking the end of an era with him. He was really Shehzade Salim because of his style and the fun of winning hearts.
At that time, he used to get 300 rupees for playing test matches, but Durrani used to play only for the entertainment of the spectators and for the love of the game. In his debut series on the 1971 tour of the West Indies, Gavaskar scored 774 runs to lead the Indian team to their first Test series victory on Caribbean soil. But this would not have been possible had Durrani not taken the wickets of Clive Lloyd and Gary Sobers in the same spell in the Port of Spain Test.
He was then dropped from the team on the tour of England as the Mumbai faction, which dominated the Indian Cricket Board, felt that he would not be able to play in English conditions. It is inconceivable that he was not selected for the tours of Australia, England and New Zealand. He was not selected for the Kanpur Test after scoring a half-century against England at the Eden Gardens. Its effect was such that people showed posters, ‘No Salim, No Test’.
When the Afghanistan team played the first Test in Bengaluru in 2018, Pathan Durrani of Afghan origin was honored by the Indian board. Durrani, who was popular for his outspokenness, irresponsibility and liveliness, himself did not realize how big a player he was and this quality made him great.
