Former Mumbai pace bowling stalwart Abdul Ismail passes away

Mumbai: Former Mumbai pacer Abdul Ismail, known as the 'king of swing bowling' in his heydays, and was a part of Mumbai's 'golden generation' of cricketers who won the Ranji Trophy title for 15 consecutive seasons in the 60s & 70s, passed away at the age of 79 due to cardiac arrest on Friday.

Son of a taxi driver, Ismail, who was born in 1945, was an Oshiwara resident. He bagged 244 wickets in 75 first-class games at a fantastic average of 18.04. Though he didn’t play for the national team, his son Asif went on to play Davis Cup for India."His contribution to Mumbai cricket and the famed Shivaji Park Gymkhana was wonderful," former India skipper Dilip Vengsarkar told TOI. Speaking to TOI, Sandeep Patil, India's 1983 World Cup-winning team, mourned the fact that three of Mumbai cricket and the famed Shivaji Park Gymkhana stalwarts - former Mumbai captain Milind Rege, domestic left-arm spin legend Paddy Shivalkar and Ismail have passed away within a short period this year.

Rege passed away on Feb 19, while Shivalkar expired on March 3.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!"It's so, so sad that the golden trio of Mumbai cricket-Abdul Ismail, Paddy Shivalkar and Milind Rege has passed away in such a short time - within a period of the last two months. I started my career with all these three and I remember bowling 44.4 overs in my first match (for Mumbai) against Hyderabad with Abdul being there to guide me. I played as a bowler. It's very sad to hear about his demise," Patil said.

According to the old-timers Ismail came close to being picked for India after starring in Mumbai's thrilling 48-run triumph in the 1970-71 Ranji Trophy final against Maharashtra at the Brabourne Stadium in the Cricket Club Of India, taking seven wickets for 58 runs-four for 41 & three for 17), but sadly missed out on the 1971 tour of England, before missing out. "You talk about all those great swing bowlers-Bob Massie, Jimmy Anderson, Manoj Prabhakar, Balwinder Singh Sandhu.

Abdul Ismail was, I think above all those guys," Patil praised.

During his childhood, Ismail had no means to play even tennis-ball cricket, but looking at his passion, a Maharashtrian Kerkar family provided him everything so he could play at Mazgaon’s Hasanabag ground. “What I am today is because of the Kerkar family. They really took care of me. We had no money. My father was the only earning member and he used to get annoyed seeing me on the ground.

Every day I would go to banks and offices and beg for a job,” Ismail had told veteran journalist Makarand Waingankar who wrote a feature on him for the ‘Bombay Boys’ series for TOI in January 2013.

Speaking about his action, Ismail remembered, “For one year I was in Ruia College. When our coach Mohini Amladi watched me for the first time, he told me to correct my action in 8 days but I just couldn’t change anything. He allowed me to bowl with the same action.”In that article, Former India batsman Brijesh Patel recalled, “Ismail was a very good bowler, deceptive with his weird action. With both swings, he made batsmen play. The quality of balls used was poor those days and the ball would lose its shine, but Abdul would be at you all the time. He should have played for India.”

In 1974, when Karnataka ended Bombay’s streak of winning the Ranji Trophy 15 times in a row in the semifinal at Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy stadium, it was an umpiring decision involving Ismail that hurt them.

After having elected to bat, Karnataka lost Vijay Kumar off the first ball to a lovely outswinger from Ismail that he edged to Sunil Gavaskar at first slip. Karnataka would have been 0 for 2 when Ismail trapped local hero Gundappa Viswanath plumb in front of the wicket with an in-swinger, but was denied by the umpire.

Viswanath went on to score 162 and in the company of Brijesh Patel (105) tore the Bombay attack. Eventually, Bombay, chasing Karnataka’s 385, lost the match.It was just Ismail's wretched luck that both cricketers were denied the chance to play for India.