There are some Indian cricketers who are looked upon with awe, like Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, and others who are worshipped, specifically Sachin Tendulkar, aka the God of Cricket. But there are only two in my estimation in 60 years of following cricket who, I can say with some degree of authority, are loved by Indian cricket fans—Salim Durani and GR Vishwanath. All these, mind you, had their careers before the explosion of social media with their corrosive fan clubs and obsessive fanboys.
What a pity then that Durani, that genius of an all-rounder, is now back in the news two-and-a-half years after his passing and for all the wrong reasons. The video purportedly showing his ex-wife Rekha in a pitiably poor state has gone viral, leading to gossip, innuendo and speculation raging like wildfire. As the biographer of the late cricketer, I have been fielding calls and queries from concerned ex-cricketers and contemporaries, journalists, and cricket fans online ever since the release of the disturbing video. For the record, my book Salim Durani: The Prince of Indian Cricket, which was released in April 2024, a year after his passing, briefly mentions his marriage to his first wife, Rekha, from whom he was divorced, and his subsequent marriage to a doctor who died in the early 1990s. By all accounts, her death left Durani broken, and his life spiralled out of control till his own passing on April 2, 2023, in Jamnagar, where he spent his last years living with his brother and family.
Durani’s life had an unusual beginning and a sad end, and in between there were grey areas that challenged anyone trying to trace the life and career of a cricketer who had played his final Test fifty years before his passing. So many rumours, myths, and half-truths circulated around this fascinating personality, the most persistent of which was his place of birth. Despite his comment in numerous interviews, including the last one three years before his end, that he had never even visited Kabul, the myth that he was the first Test cricketer to be born in the Afghan capital persists to this day. Some reputable cricket websites still carry that misinformation. He was, in fact, born near the Khyber Pass in 1934 in a caravan camp in which his mother and her brother were travelling from Kabul to Karachi to join his father, who was at the time employed with the police department. Barely a year later, the family moved with the infant Salim from Karachi to Nawanagar (now Jamnagar), an erstwhile princely state and now part of Gujarat. The ruler, the Jam Sahib from the legendary Prince KS Ranjitsinhji family, had offered his father, Abdul Aziz, a place in his cricket team, which also boasted of the great all-rounder Vinoo Mankad and fast bowler L. Amar Singh.
The other mystery centres round Aziz and his shifting to Pakistan soon after Partition in 1947, where he became a famed coach to some of the all-time greats of Pakistan cricket, including Hanif Mohammed, arguably their greatest batsman, and his brothers Wazir, Mushtaq and Sadiq. Wicket-keeper Aziz represented India in one unofficial Test against a touring Australian side in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in the 1935-36 season. But by 1947, the princely states were being disbanded, and Aziz, at 42, was no longer an active cricketer. He moved to Karachi, where he had spent some years, to take up a coaching assignment, leaving behind his wife and five children. Why he never returned—except for a brief meeting with Salim during a Test match in Calcutta in December 1961—is not known, and it is something Salim himself never wished to discuss. But it seems likely Salim’s peripatetic lifestyle, where he moved from one city to another and one job to another, and his troubled personal life may have stemmed from this abandonment.
So, what was it about Durani that had fans spellbound even though he played just 29 Tests during a first-class career spanning 25 years from 1953 to 1978? The 1960s were the glamour era of Indian cricket. With no TV (or Internet), we fans would eagerly look forward to magazines which had photos of our favourites, sometimes even in glorious colour. And it was Durani with his contemporaries, the Nawab of Pataudi (Mansur Ali Khan), Abbas Ali Baig, Farokh Engineer, ML Jaisimha and others who had a huge fan following, both male and female. Their dashing good looks, flamboyant lifestyles, and attractive brand of cricket had crowds flocking to see them in action. While ‘Tiger’ Pataudi had Nawabi airs and graces, it was Durani who was, in fact, the uncrowned prince of Indian cricket in that period. Indian cricket had a rather dull image back then. But left-handed Durani led the way with his mighty hitting, earning the sobriquet of ‘Sixer King’, which made him the darling of crowds across India but particularly in Rajasthan, where he spent the majority of his career and where he had a cult following. His probing left-arm spin was an added asset, bowling India to two notable victories—against England at Calcutta in 1961 and at Port of Spain, Trinidad, 10 years later, where he removed Clive Lloyd and the peerless Garry Sobers in quick succession to give India their first-ever victory over the West Indies. Tall and slim, with a piercing gaze and a dazzling smile, his dashing good looks saw him act in two movies, one never released and the other with the iconic Parveen Babi, who was also making her acting debut and with whom his name was romantically linked, as it was with a string of beauties over the years; such was his irresistible charisma.
Women wanted to be with him, and men wanted to be like him; friends and fans flocked to his side; generous to a fault, money slipped through his fingers like melting butter. Large-hearted and loved by his contemporaries, the aura of Salim Durani, a prince among men and cricketers, will linger on forever in the hearts and minds of all those who knew and loved him. May nothing dim that aura!
Gulu Ezekiel’s latest book is Plucky 13: The Stories Behind Ranji Trophy’s Multi-Title Winning Teams (Sachin Bajaj/Global Cricket Schools Publications)
