From Fateh Maidan to Chepauk as a teenager – The Man for a Crisis and the Backbone of the TN Middle Order
Jabbar was associated with cricket for 55 years and counts his ‘Durability’ as his greatest achievement
Jabbar was associated with cricket for 55 years and counts his ‘Durability’ as his greatest achievement
From the time he began playing Gulli cricket very near the Fateh Maiden, Abdul Jabbar Khan decided that cricket would be his way of life. Impressed with his gutsy approach and the confidence to take on senior bowlers in challenging conditions, Man Singh (later the manager of the World Cup winning Indian team) took a special liking for the young boy and presented him with opportunities and exposure to quality cricket. Into his mid-teens, he had played for South Zone schools. At a time when he was looking to continue to play in Hyderabad, he was offered a job at SBI Madras by the legendary leg spinner VV Kumar. It was a transformational move to Madras one that saw him anchor the TN middle order for 15 years. To all in TN cricket, he was 'Mr. Consistent'. Later, he was a guiding force for youngsters at Jolly Rovers and coached them for a decade and a half. But for all his monumental achievements he remained humble and behind the radar far away from the limelight. After almost a decade of persuasion, Abdul Jabbar, now 72, finally agreed to meet this writer at his palacious farm house in Moinabad in the western outskirts of Hyderabad where he is now settled. Here’s the story.
The early cricketing years – Grateful to Man Singh
Growing up in the heart of Hyderabad, cricket came naturally to Abdul Jabbar. When he began playing street cricket in Saifabad (next to Ravindra Bharathi) alongside boys who were many years his senior, he surprised them with his intensity. He showed fighting qualities right then remaining unfazed and taking on, boldy, these senior bowlers who tried to knock the young boy down. Turning out for Aliya School, the then puny looking left hander played many a match winning knock for the school that earned him the respect of the opposition bowlers. It was this fighting spirit that impressed Man Singh the most.
Sitting amidst the greenery at the corner of his huge garden on a chilly morning in February, Jabbar told this writer that he is ever indebted to Man Singh for the way he handled him as a teenager “Every youngster needs a mentor like Man Singh. He spotted the potential in me very early on after watching me bat against senior bowlers and felt that I had it in me to make it big. He was instrumental in giving the early exposure that every youngster yearns for. While I was still playing for my school team in the second division league, he included me in the senior Deccan Blues team and gave me opportunities in non-league tournaments where I got to play alongside and against the greats of Hyderabad cricket. I am ever grateful to him for helping with a solid cricketing foundation. It was the opportunities that he provided that helped me showcase my abilities in those early years.”
Batting 'left' came naturally to him though he did everything else right handed!!!
By the time he was into his mid-teens, Jabbar had played for Hyderabad and South Zone schools. His entire focus had turned to cricket and his mind was far away from academics. He skipped classes to go and watch cricket matches at the stadium and it was this experience that helped him understand the nuances and subtleties. He counts that among as great early lessons in cricket “I was still a young boy watching matches at the Fateh Maidan. There were those who believed that they should have played in those matches but were dropped and expressed frustration. At important moments, catches were dropped much to the bowler’s disappointment. Umpiring decisions went against the batsmen and they showed anger. I realised very early on that a lot of things in cricket was outside one’s control and that one had to simply focus on giving his best. And that’s what I did throughout my entire career. When given a chance, I wanted to give my best. When dropped, I went back to the nets and practiced hard to prove myself again. That philosophy stood with me all through my playing career.”
He played for the Osmania University in the first year of his College (he did B.Com at Nizam College) and also played for South Zone University but the Telangana Agitation meant that he did not get to play Varsity cricket in the next year.
The Africa tour that turned his fortunes
In 1971, Man Singh took the Hyderabad Blues team to East Africa on a cricket tour. Jabbar remembers the trip as the one that probably secured him the opportunity to play in Madras “We had Belliappa, Milkha Singh and VV Kumar as guest players from Madras. I topped the aggregate on that tour and was involved in many good partnerships with Milkha.”
The SBI offer from legendary VV
Soon after that tour came an unexpected offer end of 1971. Man Singh had taken a special liking for him and so too had ML Jaisimha but this call came from outside Hyderabad from a legendary leggie. “I had not focused on academics at all in my school and college days and had spent the previous decade almost entirely at cricket grounds. The offer from VV Kumar presented me with job security and financial stability that was very much needed at that stage in my life, especially given my academic background. In addition, I was excited to play day in day out alongside greats like VV, Milkha, SVS Mani and R Chandru. And I immediately accepted the offer”, Jabbar told this writer with great delight looking back at that transformational moment in his cricketing life.
At 88, VV Kumar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2007/07/cricket-tales-exclusive-with-vv-kumar.html) is fighting fit and continues to don the coaching hat to this day. Every week, he is off to Hosur to contribute his bit to try and produce the next generation of leg spinners. He is proud to have been the man responsible for bringing Jabbar to Madras. He told this writer as to what prompted him to get the teenager to move to Madras way back in 1971 "At SBI, we were looking to build a team for the long term, one that could compete strongly in all tournaments in addition to the first division league. I was playing in the Moin ud Dowla tourney and watched Jabbar in action in Hyderabad. His defence was impeccable and he seemed to have a great backfoot play. I thought he could handle the best spinners of that era as well as anyone else and believed that he would go a long way in cricket. I was also confident that he would bring stability to both the SBI and the TN middle order with the technique he possessed at that time. It was against this backdrop that I asked if he could move to Madras and join SBI.”
Jabbar recalls MLJ asking him to stay back as he believed that he would get into the Ranji Squad in Hyderabad the next year but by this time he had already accepted the offer from VV.
The first six months at SBI
In those early days, Jabbar lived in a small room in a lodge in Triplicane along with his close friend Rashid Mirza, with whom he had played right from street cricket. Later, Govindaraj’s brother (who joined IOB) and Shabbir Ali (who joined India Cements) also joined them at the lodge.
His earliest memories is of the bank advertising the arrival of two young cricketers from Hyderabad “In that initial phase, SBI Madras created a lot of buzz internally about hiring two ‘big’ cricketers (Mirza and Jabbar) from Hyderabad. The Chennai circle created an expectation among the crowd even before I played my first match.”
“I joined SBI in the middle of the cricket season in 1971-72 and hence was not eligible to play in the first division league as I had already played league cricket in Hyderabad that season. But what I saw in the early 1972 was unbelievable. We beat India Cements to win The Hindu trophy in front of a huge crowd at Marina. The support of the Madras crowd and their knowledge of the game took me by great surprise. I had not seen such crowds earlier and it was a great first of its kind experience. Even as I was playing my first set of matches for SBI, they knew my entire cricketing background and began to engage with me in discussions from the boundary line. I was completely taken aback by their support for me, one that remained right till the end of my career.”
He was also surprised at the way TNCA ran cricket “The structured approach and the systematic processes that the TNCA had put in place for cricket in the city also impressed me a lot in that early phase in Madras. It was very different to what I had seen in Hyderabad, which at that time was only a small association.”
In his very first year in league cricket, Jabbar amassed runs and impressed everyone. In the Buchi Babu tournament, he scored a half century in the semi-final against ACC that included Ramakant Desai, Babu Nadkarni and Karsan Ghavri. He followed this up with another half century in the final against Mafatlal.
“At the prize distribution ceremony, Sriraman complimented my batting and predicted that I would soon make my debut for TN. It was one of my first big cricketing moments in Madras” says Jabbar looking back at that final.
First Glimpses at Chepauk of Jabbar's fighting spirit
Indeed he got into the TN team soon after. In March 73, he scored a double duck in the Gopalan Trophy match batting at No. 3 but a couple of months later, one had the first glimpses of what Abdul Jabbar was made of. In the high profile semi-final where TN carved out a famous comeback victory against Maharashtra, Jabbar top scored for TN in the first innings when the team was bowled out for 160.
The 1973 Ranji Final
10 days later, in April 1973, TN prepared a rank square turner for the final against Bombay at Chepauk, a decision that backfired on them. TN Ranji winning captain S Vasudevan was in his final year at school and watched Jabbar’s gritty performance in the final. He remembers Jabbar’s knocks in both the innings when TN was shot out for 80 and 61 “It was his first year for TN and he was yet to cement his place in the team. Although we lost badly in the final, Jabbar played two brilliant knocks on an almost unplayable turner where Shivalkar spun a web around all the TN batsmen. He emerged as the sole batting warrior top scoring for TN in both the innings and I was very impressed with his determination to not give it away against a top spinner of the time.”
Those two knocks set the tone for Jabbar’s future as a batsman as the man for the crisis and he went on to become a rock in the middle order for TN in the decade and a half that followed.
A Glorious Moment- Sardesai calls on him
At the end of that final, Dilip Sardesai, who played his last match, was accorded a farewell. Jabbar recounts what happened at the TN dressing room soon after “Sardesai came to our dressing room and asked for me. He took me aside, spoke to me for ten minutes and said that having watched me play those two knocks, there would be no stopping me if I continued in the same vein and that I was destined for greater glory”
Jabbar says that it was one of his biggest moments of his cricketing life “For a legend like Sardesai to come and talk to me like that was truly inspirational and it spurred me on cricket.”
He says that his experience at SBI in the midst of legends was all positive. "Bedi, Hanumant Singh and Wadekar were a great source of inspiration and encouraged me all the time. Wadekar asked me to move to Bombay so I could play Ranji cricket for them.”
Jabbar believes that every youngster needs to be spoken to “Talking to newcomers and encouraging and guiding them in their early phase in cricket is a very important aspect in a cricketer’s journey. Most time, the simplest of advices could turn around the fortunes of a budding cricketer."
The Double Hundred - His Best Innings in Ranji cricket
In the last match of the 1975-76 Ranji season, Jabbar played a memorable innings. He counts the double hundred against Prasanna and Chandra as his best innings for TN and the knock is still fresh in his memory “We lost three early wickets before Kicha and I helped stablise the innings with a partnership of close to a 100. But we lost three more quick wickets and were struggling at around 200 for six. It was a great recovery from there and my partnership of close to 150 with Venkat was an ‘enterprising’ one. When my friend from the early Hyderabad days Shabbir Ali walked in at No.11, I was well past 150. In Hyderabad, he had opened the innings in school cricket and I knew he could bat. He stayed with me till I got that magical double century. Never did I dream that I would play such a special knock so early on in my career against the spin greats Chandra and Prasanna. The knock gave me a lot of confidence.”
He began the new Ranji season with two half centuries. He particularly remembers with special pride the partnership he put on with Mukund to help TN recover in the Ranji Quarter Finals against Railways in Delhi “We had lost half the side on the first day for around 50 and were in big trouble. Mukund and I put on a good partnership to help TN to 190. I enjoyed that knock of 45 as I thought it was a very gritty knock fighting with our backs to the wall. And we went on to win the match.”
Overlooked for South Zone against MCC
After his double century and the start to the 1976-77 season, he was hopeful of being picked for South Zone against MCC (the infamous Lever Vaseline series) but was overlooked for this match. Sadly even the zonal chances were to elude him for a long time. He was on a cricketing high at that point of time with some solid performances for TN and not being given an opportunity against a visiting team did sadden him for a short while. But as has been his way of life, he continued to focus on the opportunities he got for TN.
A fighting partnership with KB at his childhood stadium
The Hindu’s K Balaji scored his first and only Ranji hundred batting alongside Abdul Jabbar in Jan’79. TN was once again in trouble chasing Hyderabad’s 218 when Jabbar joined Balaji at 130/4. Lal Bahadur Sastri stadium was one where he had grown up as a school boy and it was close to his heart. He was keen to bat well and batted with great determination. The two put on a partnership of close to 150 to help TN gain the lead.
Balaji (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-blossoming-cricket-career-was-cut.html) says that Jabbar was a hard-working cricketer, a team man who gave his 100 per cent whether batting, bowling or fielding (he spent a lot of time fielding at forward short-leg). As a batsman he could hit the ball pretty hard. His fastish off-breaks were a good addition to the team’s bowling resources.
Great contribution in the early 1980s
At the turn of the decade, he made some telling contributions in the knock out Ranji matches. Finally he was given the break and a consistent run in the Duleep Trophy where he performed creditably. Against West Zone in October 1982, he once again fought right till the end with a half century batting at No. 7, with an injured knee, putting on 51 with Sekar for the 10th wicket and taking South Zone close to a first innings lead. A couple of months later, he top scored for TN in the Wills Trophy match against Railways and also bowled his full quota of overs conceding just 29 runs. He would have been a good allrounder in one day cricket but there too the big opportunities eluded him. In the Ranji quarters against Delhi in Feb’83, Jabbar top scored with an unbeaten 87, a knock that he considers as one of his best.
The Big Opportunity - Close and Yet so far
In light of these performances, he was confident of being picked for South Zone against the touring West Indians in October 83. He was past 30 but was going through yet another bright phase in domestic cricket. It looked like his time had finally arrived and he would reap the rewards for his decade long contribution. He says he was looking forward to a good knock after his captain told him that would be playing “A day ahead of the match, Brijesh asked me to get a good helmet as he said that I would be batting at No. 3 against Marshall and Roberts. I searched around with my brother Azeem and finally managed to find one late on the eve of the match. But the next morning, just a few minutes before the toss, Brijesh told me that I was not playing. At that time, I felt I had lost yet another opportunity to showcase myself against a visiting team.”
Forty years later, Jabbar still does not know as to what transpired in those 24 hours for him to be moved from No.3 to out of the playing XI.
Puts back the disappointment, begins new season with a century
There was a bit of a disappointment at another missed opportunity but Jabbar was once again unfazed at not being considered for an important match. This made him even stronger to showcase himself better. He began the new domestic season with another century to get TN out of trouble. In December 1983, within minutes of the start, TN was three down against Karnataka on a chilly morning in Bangalore. R Madhavan scored a century to help TN recover before Jabbar took over with a knock of 148 (sharing a double century partnership with LS). "I was looking forward to playing the West Indian greats but it was not to be. And I reconciled myself to quickly get back to giving my best for TN. This century gave me great satisfaction as it had rained hard in Madras and we had not had any practice leading up to this match"says Jabbar looking back at yet another solid performance against a strong opposition and with his team in trouble.
A fortnight later, he scored a century in the Duleep Trophy match against Central Zone. He followed this good form into the Ranji quarter final against Delhi, where he scored 88 and 62.
Sweetest Person in my cricketing life
Vasudevan(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/06/vasudevan-tn-ranji-trophy-retirement.html) remembers the two partnerships he had with Jabbar in that match including the big century stand in the first innings helping TN recover from a shaky start. “He was one of the sweetest persons I have come across in my cricketing journey. It was a great joy to bat with him in that match at Chepauk. Despite his great contribution to TN cricket, he showed great humility. Everyone in TN liked him - not just the players and the administrators but also the crowd. He always batted in a crisis for TN and was the one designated by Venkat to steady the ship.”
He was a Role Model for Youngsters- R Madhavan
At the start of the next season, in Nov’84 once again Madhavan and Jabbar scored centuries - this time against Hyderabad with the two putting on close to a double century stand. Yet another time in his career, Jabbar had helped get TN out of a precarious position (this time the team had lost 3/70 on the first morning).
A month later, he played two brilliant knocks in Salem that reminded one of the two he played against Shivalkar in the Ranji final in 1973 “It was a red soil pitch and turned square. Raghuram Bhat was at his best and almost unplayable. I had great satisfaction scoring 38 and 77 on a pitch where most found it difficult to survive.”
Madhavan recalls the role of Jabbar in his cricketing life “I hold him in very high regard. The influence of Jabbar (and Moses) was very helpful especially in the early Varsity years and when I was on the threshold of first class cricket. He was a constant source of encouragement and available anytime you needed advice in those early years of my cricketing journey. For someone who scored a double hundred against Karnataka, it was sad that he did not get opportunities at the next level. He had absolutely no malice and never showed his disappointment in not having played higher levels. To me, he was a role model - brilliant fielder in addition to tremendous batting and bowling skills and carried himself on and off the field with exceptional behaviour. I feel very fortunate in batting with him on a couple of crucial partnerships.”
Four years in a row from 1980/81, he performed extraordinarily in the knock out Ranji games against Bombay and Delhi. After his consistent performances in these matches, in challenging conditions and now in Duleep Trophy as well, his expectations rose ahead of the selection of the South Zone team to play David Gower’s England in Jan’85. He recalls his thought process at that time “In the previous year, I scored a century in Duleep Trophy and began the new season with a 100 against Hyderabad and played really well in both innings on a square turner against Bhat. But once again I was over looked. Even Venkat felt sorry for me that day when the team was announced.”
Venkat asks him to postpone his retirement
In the final of the Duleep Trophy in Feb’85, it was Jabbar’s knock of 68 that helped South Zone recover from 100/6 in the 2nd innings to a respectable total of 236 to help the team lift the trophy. He also scored close to 500 runs in the Ranji season. And yet at the start of the next season, his name was missing from the South Zone squad. “I thought my time was up and wanted to retire but Venkat convinced me that I still had it in me to contribute to TN cricket and asked me to continue for a couple of years. I could not say NO to Venkat and I nodded."
PC Prakash's Debut season - Jabbar’s gracious gesture
And so he continued. It was in December 1985 that PC Prakash (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/04/pc-prakash-tn-ranji-1980s.html) made his Ranji debut after having waited for a few years. He told this writer at his home in April 2022 as to how grateful he was to Abdul Jabbar for the noble gesture from the veteran in his debut season “I was slated to bat only at No. 6 but it was the gracious gesture of Jabbar that helped me move a slot up and it made a big difference. He sacrificed his slot for me and I am ever grateful to him for that. His decision gave me a lot of confidence and I wanted to prove to him that his sacrifice would not go waste.”
Jabbar says that PC had been in the squad for a few years but had not made his debut."It had been a frustrating period for him and I was sensitive to the feelings of a young cricketer all excited to make his debut. I volunteered to move to No. 6 so he could have more opportunities to showcase his batting skills and seal a permanent place for himself in the TN team.”
And that Prakash did brilliantly with successive centuries in his debut season. In his very second match, he shared a century partnership with Jabbar in the process also scoring a century.
Jabbar is proud that even in his last Ranji match in Jan'87, he top scored for TN with a half century that helped the team secure an outright win against Andhra after having conceded the first innings lead.
Most Loveable Character on and off the field - Kalli
Jabbar had impressed in his first season for TN when he played two gutsy knocks in that Ranji Final at Chepauk. Fast Bowler B Kalyanasundaram, who picked up a hat-trick in that final, says that Jabbar was a very lovable character both on and off the field. "He was popular with every TN cricketer. I was a witness to his magnificent double hundred at the Chinnaswamy Stadium against Karnataka. He was a reliable middle order bat and served TN with distinction over a long period of time. I would say that TN was very fortunate to have had the services of Jabbar."
A specialist at short leg
Jabbar had great reflexes even as a youngster and enjoyed fielding at short leg, especially to Venkat, VV and Vasudevan. Right from a young age, he took interest in fielding and taking difficult catches gave him a great deal of joy. However, it was always fraught with danger as there were no shin pads and helmet in those days. He recalls a couple of occasions when he received nasty blows “Against Andhra at Chepauk, a full-fledged sweep hit my forehead and the ball raced to the third man boundary!!! In the Duleep Trophy match, a flick of the first ball of the match thudded on to my right knee. Within minutes, the area from my knee to the upper thigh turned ‘red, blue and purple’. I could not field after the first ball.”
All through his career, he received a number of such blows on his shoulder. The positive out of this was that Venkat liked him a lot “Venky liked those who gave their 100% on the field and he was always appreciative of my courageous efforts at short leg.”
PCP himself fielded for many hours for TN as a 12th man before he finally made his Ranji debut. He says that Jabbar stood for long hours at short leg without ever complaining. "He just enjoyed fielding. He had great reflexes which helped him take some outstanding catches. It gave the bowlers a great deal of confidence when Jabbar was at short leg."
While he says Prasanna, Chandra and Shivalkar were outstanding spinners he faced in Ranji cricket, VV Kumar was ‘simply out of the world’ and bamboozled batsmen with his flight and googlies. "It was just a delight to stand to him at short leg. I genuinely felt that there would be a nick every ball such was the day he made the batsmen dance" says Jabbar looking back at how he enjoyed the discomfiture of the opposition batsmen facing up to VV.
Jabbar – The Breakthrough Bowler
Even as a teenager playing cricket in Hyderabad, Jabbar had begun to bowl. Once again, it was Man Singh who gave him the first opportunity “In a match in the late 1960s, Deccan Blues had taken the first innings lead and there were just a few hours left. Man Singh gave me the new ball and I surprised him picking up four wickets bowling medium pace. In the next match against a State Bank side comprising of state players, I once again opened the bowling and picked up six wickets. We won the match much against expectations.”
When he moved to Madras, he continued to bowl alongside R Prabhakar for SBI. In his very first over in Ranji cricket, he picked up a wicket.
At the BS nets, after his batting stint, he began to bowl off spin for 2-3 hours as he did not want to spend time doing nothing. He says Venkat (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/venkataraghavan75.html) was impressed with his spin and began to use him as an off spinner in Ranji Trophy.
The missed catch and what might have been!!!
In the Ranji semi-final in March 77, Jabbar bagged the prize wicket of Gavaskar though by then the Bombay opener had scored a century. The following season, Mukund captained TN in Venkat’s absence. When he handed the ball to Jabbar against Karnataka, he removed Sudhakar Rao and shortly after Imtiaz Ahmed for zero. He recalls that moment “Vijayakrishna was on zero when he drove me to Moses but he put down the catch. Had that catch been held, I may have gone to pick up five wickets as I was on a roll with the ball that day.”
His Best spell in Ranji cricket
He counts his four wickets against Bombay in the Ranji quarters towards the end of his career in Feb’86 as his most memorable spell for TN “Bombay had a terrific start and had gone well past 150 losing just one wicket. When Bharath Reddy gave me the ball, I got him the breakthrough. I also got the wickets of Sandeep Patil and Manjrekar cheaply. It was my best spell for TN bowling over 40 overs.”
In the first division league, he bagged around 40 wickets with his off spin every season for three consecutive years in the early 80s. But in the year that Bharath Reddy moved from SBI to Chemplast, he did not bowl a single over but Jabbar would not go and ask his new captain even once that year. Such was his gentlemanly conduct.
Am proud I secured his services for TN - VVK
It is now just over 50 years since VV Kumar brought Jabbar from Hyderabad to Madras. He says he is proud that he was instrumental in securing for TN a player of Jabbar’s stature who made a solid contribution over a long period of time "Over the 15 years that he played for TN, he gave a great bit of confidence to those that batted with him. He would pick the gaps beautifully and rotate the strike. I also thought that Venkat handled him really well. He found Jabbar to be an ideal batsman for the team in the late middle order and saw him as one best suited to handle a crisis situation and guide the other batsmen including the lower half.”
VV thinks that Jabbar was under bowled at the state level "If he had been given more opportunities as a bowler for TN, he would have turned out to be an outstanding allrounder for the state but he was used only as one who could provide us the crucial breakthroughs to break partnerships and then the main bowlers would come back."
A bowler that opposition feared and the most economical TN bowler
Much after his Ranji retirement, Jabbar had two 'enlightening' moments about his bowling. Hyderabad cricketer Vijay Paul revealed to Jabbar a piece of information that he said they had kept secret during his playing days "In all our team meetings, the message from the captain was not to give our wicket away to Jabbar. All of us felt that you were a dangerous bowler and hence wanted to play you safe."
On another occasion, TN left arm spinner Sunil Subramanian (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/05/sunil-subramanian-tn-left-arm-spinner.html?m=1), who played for Jolly Rovers in the 1990s when Jabbar was the coach, came up to him and revealed to him an info that gave him great delight "I thought that I would be the most economical bowler for TN but I found that its you. Congratulations."
Jabbar hits a six with GRV's bat
He had played for 15 years at SBI and it had been a memorable stint for him. Long standing opener of SBI S Kedarnath(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/06/kedarnath-s-opener-from-1970s.html) played with Jabbar for a decade. He recounts a memorable innings that Jabbar played against Nirlons in the semi finals of the Moin ud Dowla tournament in Hyderabad “We were chasing and were five down with over 60 to win. There was persistent drizzle but Gavaskar refused to go back to the pavilion forcing us to play. Off the last ball of the penultimate over, I took a single much to the disgust of the crowd. At the start of the last over, Jabbar asked me to get a single of the first ball which I did. And then much to my shock, he came to me to the non-striker’s end and asked me to hand my bat to him.”
“It was a very special bat that legend GRV had given me. I had never given that to anyone else till that moment. He psyched me saying that if I valued SBI and wanted the bank to win, I should give the bat to him. A win for SBI meant everything to us and I handed him ‘GRV’s bat. He lifted the next ball from Ravi Shastri over deep midwicket clearing Fateh Maidan for a six to help us secure the win."
“Rotating the strike, batting with a clear and positive mindset and with no half measures were my differentiators at the crease” says Jabbar on the way he approached batting.
A Great Time at SBI but it was time to move on
Jabbar counts winning so many first division titles, Hindu Trophy year on year and the Simpson Trophy for three years as great moments in his playing days for SBI. "The seniors there like VV really took care of the youngsters and encouraged us. There was such camaraderie among the players. We enjoyed each other’s success. We were given a lot of freedom to express ourselves in our cricket and it also put a lot of responsibility in each of us to give our best for the Bank. We understood that we were playing for a prestigious team and jelled as a unit that helped us win so many tournaments in the 1970s and early 80s."
Given his academic background and the fact that he had not worked much at the bank in that phase, he wanted to continue to be engaged with cricket. And when Bharath Reddy offered him a cricketing opportunity at Jolly Rovers he gladly accepted it. He played for them till he was into this 40s and then took on the role of a coach.
Jabbar played some unforgettable knocks for Jolly Rovers. VB Chandrasekar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/01/vb-chandrasekar.html), who he considers as one of his favourite cricketers, would ask him to bat just for 7 overs in 30 over matches and the direction was for him to hit out (and get out) after giving the team a good start “In that match against SPIC, I hit out at everything and ended up with 130 much to VB’s delight!!!”
His twin hundreds in the Pasadena finals for Chemplast, years after his Ranji retirement stands testimony to his endurance.
His big influence - I was a decent version of Jabbar!!!
S Sharath (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/12/sharath-s-tn-crickets-atg.html), who played over a 100 Ranji matches for TN, joined Chemplast in the early 1990s at a time when Jabbar began coaching the team. He says that Jabbar was a big influence on his batting “He was at the fag end of his playing days when I joined Jolly Rovers. But even at that time, he looked a different breed and gave us glimpses of both his gutsy side as well as his strong stroke-play. His temperament was at a different level both as a batsman and a coach. I was fortunate to have learned batting from him in those early years at Chemplast. It was Jabbar who was instrumental in shaping my batting. He taught me many things about playing spin and very minute technical aspects about batting."
"He was a big player but always maintained low profile. He was humility personified. He generated positivity among the players. He was one of the biggest inspirations for me as a cricketer. I can say with a great deal of pride that in later years I turned out to be a decent version of him as a middle order batsman for TN."
His brother - Vocal, Blunt and on your face
While Abdul Jabbar was the silent, non complaining, take it in your stride cricketer in Tamil Nadu, his brother, Abdul Azeem, younger to him by 9 years, was completely the opposite. He was vocal, blunt and on your face. Like Jabbar, Azeem too played a decade and a half of first class cricket. He was a dashing opener who had all the strokes. Of course, he once scored a patient triple hundred against TN. When his elder brother asked him the reason, he said 'he was running temparature that day'.
He too was on the verge of zonal selection. On occasions when dogged openers from another state got picked for the Zone in one day tournaments to which he was most suited, he threatened to take it up with the authorities. Jabbar was the calming influence on his brother and every time Azeem boiled with anger at non selection, it was the elder brother who quietened with the same philosophy that he followed in his own cricketing life.
All his life, Jabbar was very close to Azeem "We discussed cricket for hours together. At his peak, he would often say that I was soft and one had to take genuine issues with the authorities. He gave the impression that he did not agree with my views but inside him he listened to what I said and usually calmed down after expressing his anger."
He is saddened that Azeem did not get the chances at the higher level he may have deserved with the runs that he amassed. Also, the demise, last April, of his brother was a big blow to Jabbar. Like another dashing opener, KR Rajagopal(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/03/kr-rajagopal-dashing-opener-brilliant.html), Abdul Azeem too was on dialysis in the last phase of his life.
No Life outside of Cricket- His wife's new terms and conditions
Right from his childhood he knew nothing other than cricket. After he had moved to Madras, he spent almost his entire time at the nets or matches. If he was not at one of these, he would be discussing cricket for hours together with his team mates much to his wife’s frustration. It was Arifa who managed the household and brought up the children all on her own with Jabbar away at one ground or the other all through his life!! Jabbar credits his wife, who holds a Masters Degree, for taking the entire responsibility and allowing for smooth sailing at home when his mind was solely on cricket.
Arifa told this writer she knew what she was getting into when she married a cricketer like him. He is now into his 70s but she finds him no different even now. And that led her, recently, to lay down a stringent and a bit of an absurd condition. Jabbar let out a big laugh when she shared the details of the new terms and conditions to this writer “When we go to a bank, he has to stay outside and not enter the bank till I complete my work. In the past, when I went out with him, all the staffers and even customers would engage in long cricketing conversations with him for he was that passionate about cricket. The only solution I had was to keep him away at the entrance so I could first finish my work before he entered the bank. This model is now working well for me!!! When he gets into a phone call, it goes on endlessly for hours and hours and he forgets everyone around him - such is his passion for cricket.”
Vasudevan is of the same view "Whenever I am to talk to Jabbar (even on phone), I tell my wife that I will be away for a few hours. He is so passionate about the game and his life has all been about cricket, that when he gets talking, it turns out to be like his playing days - He simply becomes unstoppable."
A Satisfying five decades in cricket
Jabbar looks back with great satisfaction at his TN comebacks “I was dropped thrice in my Ranji career. My early lessons during my school days directed me to go back to the nets and the local matches to prove myself to make my way back into the team. The comebacks gave me a lot of satisfaction and made me stronger, mentally.”
Another aspect that gave him a great bit of happiness was scoring runs in challenging conditions and against strong oppositions. He always made runs against teams like Karnataka, Bombay and Delhi that possessed high quality spinners. He puts his success against these teams to greater concentration levels in those matches “I focused a lot more against the top teams as even one small lapse in concentration could have costed my wicket. It was very satisfying to have got runs against all the top ranked opposition in very challenging conditions and against top spinners of the time.”
At least thrice, those around him and the cricket loving people of Chennai felt that he was on the verge of a call up to play against visiting sides but the big opportunity always seemed to elude him.
Almost close to four decades after he retired from Ranji cricket, Jabbar has no regrets or ill feelings about not playing higher levels and remains philosophical about his cricketing career “Very early on, in my teenage days, I realised that selection was not in my hands. My job was to score runs and contribute to the team. Right till the end of my playing days that is what I focused on and did not worry about the selection. And I take pride in the fact that I scored runs for TN even in my very last innings.”
He counts his durability in the game as his biggest achievement in cricket. "I played Ranji cricket for 15 years, coached Jolly Rovers for 15 years and also ran a coaching academy for several years at CLRI. In my last engagement, I was coaching Pondicherry. From 1965 to 2019, I was involved with top notch cricket without a break of a single year and the longevity of my cricket association gave me a great deal of satisfaction.”
It was finally left to the Global Pandemic to put an end to his five and a half decade association with cricket. His undying passion for the game may get him back though. There have been offers in the recent past which he has not taken up. But don't be surprised if sometime in the near future Jabbar gets into some modern tools and techniques such as video analysis and the like for you cannot keep this TN cricketing legend out of the game for too long.