Chennai, Dec 22 (UNI) Popular Tamil cricket commentator in
1980s and 90s, S M Abdul Jabbar, who had a huge fan following
in India and Sri Lanka, including LTTE leader V Prabhakaran,
passed away due to a cardiac arrest today.
A former Tamil Nadu batting mainstay, 81-year-old Jabbar,
a left-hand middle order bat, made 4270 runs in 87 first class
matches at an average of 40.66.
He had also served as the Coach of the Tamil Nadu cricket
team.
He was so popular with his batting skills and cricketers
used to say '‘Put Jabbar in a crisis situation and he will
rescue the side.'
Born on June 26, 1939 at Sathankulam in Tuticorin district
of Tamil Nadu, Jabbar was a Tamil radio broadcaster, cricket
commentator and writer and has written several Tamil books.
A distinct voice that dissected the game in pure Tamil, he
was very popular among cricket-lovers in Tamilnadu.
The Test matches during Pongal festival were incomplete with
his voice.
In late 1990s, he even commentated for matches in BBC Tamil
and ESPN.
His Tamil was so soothing that LTTE chief V Prabhakaran had
once called him to his place and honoured.
Jabbar wrote a book in which he recounted his experiences
meeting Mr Prabhakaran.
He said Mr Prabhakaran’s appreciation was the best award
received in life.
Jabbar was born into a middle class Muslim family and grew
up in the small town of Sathankulam. Having relatives in
Sri Lanka, he relocated to Colombo for his higher studies
at Zahira College, Colombo.
After completing his education he moved back to India due
to the tense political situation in Sri Lanka.
Born in the Golden Age of Radio, Jabbar became a regular
radio listener during his childhood in India and Sri Lanka.
He often wrote letters to radio stations about their programs.
On one occasion, he wrote a letter to All India Radio that
was critical of its Tamil language cricket commentary.
The letter was read on air and he was invited to show his
skill by providing Tamil commentary of the Ranji Trophy
cricket match between Tamil Nadu and Kerala and that
turned out to be a turning point in his life as it made
him a popular Tamil commentator.
Abdul Jabbar already had considerable experience anchoring
Tamil programs for the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation
when he joined the AIR Chennai Tamil commentary team in
1979.
He learned substantially from commentating with Tamil radio
pioneer and cricket writer V Ramamurthy.
The AIR Tamil commentary team covered every test match and
one day international played in Chennai, and many of the
regional matches.
Jabbar's commentary remained popular through the 1990s with
a fan base in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka that included
Mr Prabhakaran, whom he interviewed in 2002.
After the AIR Tamil commentary team was disbanded in 2004,
Abdul Jabbar continued providing Tamil commentary for the
television channels ESPN, Neo Sports, Sun TV and Zee.
The Tamil Nadu cricketing fraternity condoled his death.
UNI GV 1429