What’s happening in Mumbai cricket? The trio of Milind Rege, Paddy Shivalkar and Abdul Ismail (1945-2025) gone in the space of a few months. More recently, Vijay ‘Papa’ Karkhanis departed too.

I was fortunate not to face Abdulla [I always called him Abdulla] in inter-office cricket. He would have been a handful I’m sure. Our seniors like Sunil Gavaskar and Ashok Mankad used to say that if Abdulla’s first ball was an outswinger, we would win. His tally of 244 wickets in first-class cricket bears testimony to his ability. With that deceptive action, he wreaked havoc in many a formidable batting line-up.