New Delhi, 2 Apr: Salim Durani, the debonair Indian cricketer of the 1960s with movie star looks, a puckish sense of humour, and a penchant for hitting monstrous sixes on demand, died on Sunday.
\nHe was 88. His death was confirmed by sources close to the family.
\nHe had been living with his younger brother, Jahangir Durani, in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Durani had undergone a proximal femoral nail surgery after he broke his thigh bone in a fall in January this year.
\nThe Kabul-born Durani, who packed a punch with his bat and was also a handy left-arm orthodox bowler, played 29 Tests and was instrumental in India defeating England 2-0 in the historic five-match Test series in 1961-62, picking up eight and 10 wickets in the team’s victories at Calcutta and Madras.
\nDurani, known for his fine dressing style and swagger, scored just one century though he had seven fifties in the 50 innings he played for the country, scoring 1,202 runs.
\nA decade after the epic triumph against England, he played a key role in helping India to victory against the West Indies in Port of Spain, dismissing both Clive Lloyd and Sir Garfield Sobers.
\nThe star cricketer also dabbled in Bollywood, starring opposite renowned actor Praveen Babi in the movie Charitra in 1973.
\nPM Modi condoles Salim Durani\u2019s demise
\nCondoling the demise of the legendary Indian cricketer, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he made a key contribution to India\u2019s rise in the world of cricket.
\nIn a tweet, Prime Minister Modi said, \u201cSalim Durani Ji was a cricketing legend, an institution in himself. He made a key contribution to India\u2019s rise in the world of cricket. On and off the field, he was known for his style. Pained by his demise. Condolences to his family and friends. May his soul rest in peace.\u201d
\nNoting that Salim Durani had a very old and strong association with Gujarat, the Prime Minister said he played for Saurashtra and Gujarat for a few years, and also made the State his home.
\n\u201cI have had the opportunity to interact with him and was deeply impressed by his multifaceted persona. He will surely be missed,\u201d Mr. Modi said. PTI<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, 2 Apr: Salim Durani, the debonair Indian cricketer of the 1960s with movie star looks, a puckish sense of humour, and a penchant for hitting monstrous sixes on demand, died on Sunday. He was 88. His death was confirmed by sources close to the family. He had been living with his younger brother, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}