Hyderabad, March 19 -- Abbas Ali Baig who is celebrating his 85th birthday today was once described as the Golden Boy of Hyderabad's Golden generation of cricketers. He epitomised the glamour of a well bred cricketer and combined it with a rugged, hard working approach to the game which led to many successes.

Back when he was in his prime, cricket was not played as frequentlyas it is now. So he only had the chance to play in ten Test matches for India between1959 and 1967. His bestinnings came in his first Test match which was against England (the fourth Test of the series) in 1959.

In that matchhe scored 112 in the second innings beforehe was run out. He was a mere lad then, only 20 years old but the way he tackled the world's finest b...