Nazir Ali

Who was Nazir Ali?

Syed Nazir Ali was a prominent player from the early days of Indian cricket.

Nazir Ali was an attacking right-handed batsman, a fast-medium bowler and a good fielder. He was younger brother of Wazir Ali.

When MCC toured India in 1926/27, he impressed the MCC captain Arthur Gilligan who suggested that Nazir should qualify for Sussex. Some months later Nazir Ali wakened up the secretary of Sussex at 1 am asking for hospitality or to be sent where he could find it.

Nazir was lucky to have a patron in the Maharaja of Patiala who sent him to England to study electrical engineering. There he represented Sussex once and played in other matches, resuming his career in India four years later.

He played in India's first Test match in 1932 scoring 13 and 6 and picked up an injury while fielding during England's second innings. He scored 1020 runs and took 23 wickets in the tour. Nazir's most memorable feat was perhaps the 52, with five fours and three sixes, that he scored against Yorkshire out of India's 66 allout. No other batsmen scored more than three. This is still the lowest first class total to include an individual fifty.