his cheek by a young woman spectator, becoming the first Indian cricketer to be kissed on the field. Vijay Merchant who was commentating then remarked "I wonder where all these enterprising young ladies were when I was scoring my hundreds and two hundreds." A painting called "The Kissing of Abbas Ali Baig", depicting the incident was featured in Salman Rushdie's novel The Moor's Last Sigh (1995). Baig's success in the 1959/60 season led to him being named as one of Indian Crickets five "Cricketers of the Year". In the following season, Baig had an unsuccessful outing against Pakistan, managing to score just 34 runs in four innings. This led to him being dropped from the side for the subsequent series. During this time, it was said he received hate mail for under-performing against fellow Muslims. However, he was impressive in the domestic circuit, scoring heavily in the Ranji and Duleep Trophy tournaments. In 1966, he was included in the team for the home series against West Indies. Baig scored 48 runs in two of the Tests he played in the series. He was dropped again and never played Test cricket again. He almost made it to the squad for the 1971 tour of West Indies before being dropped. He was selected in the Indian team that toured England in 1971. Baig's three younger brothers—Murtuza Baig, Mazhar Baig, and Mujtaba Baig—all played professional cricket. Murtuza played first-class cricket for Hyderabad but was less successful than Abbas. Notes References Bibliography External links 1939 births Living people India Test cricketers Cricketers who made a century on Test debut Indian cricketers Somerset cricketers South Zone cricketers Commonwealth XI cricketers Oxford University cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Hyderabad cricketers Indian Universities cricketers Cricketers from Hyderabad, India Alumni of University College, Oxford