Amazing Grace
Had he played cricket in the present age, Syed Mushtaq Ali would probably have been the toast of the one-day game. His brilliant, unorthodox, stroke-play was tailor-made for instant cricket.
Jitendra Muchhal profiles this fascinating sportsman and his encounters with Douglas Jardine, C. K. Nayudu and the quixotic cricket board.
Never before, and seldom later, has any Indian cricketer been decorated with as many sobriquets as Syed Mushtaq Ali. Robertson Glasgow found ‘a close resemblance between Mushtaq at the wicket and Helen of Troy’. The great Neville Cardus described him as, ‘another juggler from the land of Ranji and Duleep’. To Berry Sarbadhikary, he was the ‘gay cavalier’, to another, ‘unorthodoxy personified’.
But what does Mushtaq Ali, the individual think about Mushtaq Ali, the cricketer? ” I played cricket merely for the fun of it. I found joy in the game and while I played it, I was intent on transporting that delight to those around me. Brilliant cricket to me is life’s elixir. And I still believe that cricket played with joie de vivre to delight millions is real cricket”.
Syed Mushtaq Ali, the elder of the two sons of Khan Sahed Yaqub Ali was born on December 17, 1914, in Indore, the then capital of Holkar state. ”As I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, it could be said that I was born with a cricket bat in my hand.”
Though he was good at both Hockey and Football, Mushtaq loved Cricket. His long association with the game began off the pitch. ”At the medical college grounds, I used to help the grounds man put up the matting, or man the scoreboard. It was only when the teams were short of fielders that I got an opportunity to play.”
In 1926, the late Colonel C.K. Nayudu and his family moved in as Mushtaq’s neighbors. ”Nayudusaheb’s brothers, C.S. and C.R. become my friends. We used to form our own team and play.”
Wrote Neville Cardus: ‘His cricket at times was touched with genius and imagination.’ Recalling the partnership 25 years later, Merchant wrote, ‘What Mushtaq displayed that day was not merely superlative batting, it was poetry.’
His baptism came in 1929, by sheer chance. C.K. Nayudu was going to Hyderabad for the Behram-ud-Doulah Cup and was on the lookout for a young player to complete the team. Remembers Mushtaq Ali,. ”Nayudusaheb was passing my residence one day. He saw me, turned around and immediately asked my father if I would be allowed to go with him. That was the turning point in my life. My father gave his consent. Had he refused, I would never have made it.”
Mushtaq Ali’s performance in the tournament was outstanding. ”I got an hat- trick against Nizam’s State railway team, taking five wickets for five runs. And against Hyderabad XI, I scored 65 runs.”