KOCHI
: The man credited with giving Keralites their maiden taste of international cricketing action, ACM Abdulla, passed away at his residence in Thiruvananthapuram in the wee hours on Wednesday due to post-Covid complications. He was 88.
Abdulla was the secretary of the
Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) when the University Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram hosted the Duleep Trophy match between North Zone and South Zone, in 1981, that featured stars like GR Vishwanath,
Kapil Dev, S Venkataraghavan, K Srikkanth, Roger Binny and
Madan Lal.
The successful conduct of that match prompted Abdulla to dream big. He wanted to support 'baggage man' (a person helping visiting teams to India in the 80s)
Govinda who was facing financial constraints. So he invited Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), which was captained by Keith Fletcher and had the likes of Ian Botham and Graham Gooch, touring neighbouring Sri Lanka to play a fundraising game against a Chief Minister's XI in 1982 in Thiruvananthapuram.
The charity match turned out to be a huge hit and a sum of Rs 50,000 was raised for helping Govinda. This prompted Abdulla, the then secretary of KCA, to take up the challenge of hosting Kerala's first-ever ODI between India and Australia in October 1984. Though the match could not be completed due to rain, it put Kerala on the international cricket map.
"The BCCI and its affiliates were not cash-rich during those days. But Abdulla was a determined administrator with a great vision. Besides bringing international players to Kerala, his biggest contribution was to sow the seeds for laying a turf wicket at the University Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram. I learned a lot from him. His demise is a big demise to the sports fraternity," said ex-BCCI secretary SK Nair, who worked with Abdulla as a joint secretary in KCA in the early 80s.
But Abdulla's tryst with sports was not limited to cricket alone.
Born in a family, Acharath, with a rich cricketing history in Thalassery, it was natural that a young Abdulla got turned into sports early. After graduating from the National Institute of Sports, Patiala, Abdulla started his career as a Physical Education Teacher at St Joseph's school, Thalassery.
His maiden foray into sports administration came in 1962 when he was elected secretary of the State School Athletics Association. When Thiruvananthapuram hosted National School Games in 1970, Abdulla was the organising secretary, a role he donned two more times when the city conducted the event in 1977 and 1985. His work in making the Games a grand success won him many admirers and the state government decided to reward him with the post of School Sports Organiser in 1971 and he decided to settle down in the state capital before retiring from service in 1988.
Abdulla's burial was held at Palayam Juma Masjid on Wednesday afternoon. He leaves behind his wife S Nafeesa Beewi, sons Sahir N Abdulla and Shiraj N Abdulla and daughter Sherine Nazeer.
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