Abdul Azeem in his prime.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
HYDERABAD: Hyderabad’s Abdul Azeem, one of many best openers in home cricket, handed away right here on Tuesday. Azeem, who was on dialysis for fairly a while, was 62 and is survived by spouse and two daughters.
Widely acknowledged as a type of batters within the 80s and 90s who re-defined the perspective of an opener with blazing knocks akin to the T20 innings of the up to date period, Azeem needed to his credit score a triple century in opposition to Tamil Nadu within the 1986 Ranji season.
A gentleman cricketer who by no means compromised with the principles of the sport on and off the sector as was evident when he as soon as stop the HCA selector’s publish when he felt the procedures weren’t being adopted in selecting the State squads.
An affable character, giving numerous enjoyable moments to his associates and fellow cricketers, Azeem was additionally coach of the Hyderabad Ranji crew with Noel David as his deputy.
In a profession spanning 73 first-class video games between 1980-95, the dashing opener scored 4644 runs and had 12 centuries and 18 fifties to his identify.
Former BCCI president N. Shivlal Yadav knowledgeable The Hindu that it was a horrible private loss. “Azeem was such a brilliant cricketer who never got his due at the highest level. A very sincere player who always played for the team’s cause. It is a huge loss to Hyderabad cricket.”
Former India captain Mohd Azharuddin, Test stars Arshad Ayub, former HCA secretaries Seshadri Venkateshwaran, Okay. John Manoj and ex-Ranji cricketer and Azeem’s teammate Vanka Pratap expressed shock even whereas recalling Azeem’s contribution to cricket.
