From masters of spin to anything but that

Mohammad Azharuddin was an artiste in the truest sense of the word. An absolute entertainer who compelled attention with his mere presence on a cricket field. He glided across the turf effortlessly, seldom putting in a dive because he didn’t need to, arriving at the ball that bit quicker than seemed humanly possible. And he had more time than most to play his strokes because he sighted the ball and summed it up early and played it as late as he could.

Contrary to mischievous innuendo from motivated quarters, he was a pretty good player of fast bowling. Otherwise, how could he have unleashed centuries in Cape Town (against Allan Donald, Shaun Pollock, Lance Klusener and Brian McMillan), Adelaide (Craig McDermott, Mike Whitney, Merv Hughes) and Faisalabad (Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Saleem Ja