‘Errol Flynn’ remembers his Australian alter ego

‘‘It was so nice of him. I’m not all that. Bahut badi baat keh diya unhone,’’ Ali (90) said yesterday. Strangely, all the attributes that Miller ascribed to Ali held good for himself too.

‘‘I may have had a thousand fans but I was always a big fan of Miller, (Frank) Worrell, Denis Compton and CK Nayudu,’’ Mushtaq told The Indian Express from Indore.

‘‘There were only two instances when I interacted with him (Miller). Once in Delhi and another during a benefit match in Pakistan,’’ recalled Ali. Indeed, Miller toured India only once, with the Australian Services team in 1945-46 on a four-match unofficial ‘Test’ series.

The Miller-Ali friendship probably had its roots in flamboyance. Representing the Viceroy XI, Ali claims to have cracked a century before lunch against the touring Australians in a warm-up game. ‘‘We became friends after that,’’ he says.

‘‘He was a cheerful and a easy-going man and our interactions were mostly at the ground itself. He was tall and quite handsome too,’’ remembers Ali. ‘‘Do you know that he never got along with the Don (Sir Donald Bradman)? It resulted in him not getting selected (to the Australian team) too.’’

Did any modern era player remind him of Miller? ‘‘Kapil Dev’’ is his prompt reply.