"Salim Durani would hit a six to where the crowd cheered the most" - Nitin Gadkari recalls visiting cricket stadiums
The Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari recently recalled the days when he visited cricket stadiums to watch the likes of Salim Durani, Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar. Gadkari recollected how Durani used to smack maximums towards the noisiest part of the ground.
In an exclusive chat with Indranil Basu on SK Live, Nitin Gadkari spoke about his love for cricket. Gadkari played the sport during his school days and was a middle-order batsman and a right-arm off-spinner.
In those days, Gadkari frequently visited the VCA Stadium in Nagpur to enjoy domestic cricket matches. When asked to share his experience of spending 25 paise to buy tickets for Ranji Trophy matches, Gadkari replied:
"Ranji Trophy matches used to take place at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. At that time, Vidarbha played against the Rajasthan team. I remember Rajasthan had Hanumant Singh, Salim Durani, Laxman Singh in their team. Madhya Pradesh had the likes of (Sanjay) Jagdale. So, the matches happened zone-wise. Many Duleep Trophy games also took place in Nagpur."
"I remember watching Sunil Gavaskar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sandeep Patil, EAS Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi live at the stadium. We all watched those matches with much interest. Salim Durani's specialty was that he would hit a six to where the crowd cheered the most. Even if he scored 40 runs, he would hit two-three sixes," Gadkari added.
Nitin Gadkari also recalled Murthy Rajan's knock against West Indies, where the Nagpur-born player destroyed the dangerous Caribbean bowling attack.
Salim Durani is the only Afghanistan-born player to have played for the Indian cricket team
While Afghanistan has a Test team now, the ACB was not an ICC member when Salim Durani played international cricket. He is the only player born in Afghanistan to have represented the Indian cricket team.
Born in 1934, Durani played for India from 1960 to 1973. He donned the Indian jersey in 29 Tests, scoring 1,202 runs at an average of 25.04. Durani also picked up 74 Test wickets with his left-arm spin.