Eddie Aibara passes on

Stalwart Hyderabad batsman of yesteryear, Eddie Aibara, died at his residence in Secunderabad early this morning. The 82-year-old Aibara had been ailing for some time. Aibara's career for Hyderabad spanned 25 seasons from 1934-35 to 1958-59 and he also played with distinction for Parsis in the Bombay Pentangular.

After his playing days, Aibara conducted numerous camps in his capacity as national coach, moulding the abilities of many a young player. Indeed until illness intervened a few months ago, he continued to coach six days a week at the Zoroastrian Club and the Sports Coaching Foundation in the city.

The undoubted highlight of Aibara's career was his unbeaten 137 in the Ranji Trophy final of 1937-38 which lifted Hyderabad to a thrilling one wicket victory over Nawanagar. Ironically it was the only game Hyderabad played in that year's competition, earlier encounters against Madras and United Provinces having produced walkovers. Chasing 310 to win in the fourth innings, Aibara marshalled Hyderabad home against an awesome attack comprising Amar Singh, Shute Banerjee, Mubarak Ali, Vinoo Mankad and AF Wensley.

It was a mystery why Aibara never played Test cricket, even at unofficial level, although he did play for Hyderabad against several touring sides. His qualities of pluck and resolution would have been much valued in Indian teams of any era.

"Sound in defence he was a beautiful driver of the ball, his straight and on-drives were two of the loveliest strokes in the game", writes cricket historian PN Sundaresan. In 45 Ranji Trophy games, Aibara aggregated 2773 runs at an average of 40.78 with nine centuries. He had the distinction of being the only batsman to score a hundred centuries in the Hyderabad Cricket Association's local league.