The Nawab of Pataudi, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, and Tiger Pataudi the cricketer who was known variously and for his varied abilioties will have a nice little chapter in a definitive history of Indian cricket.
When I first began following cricket as a 10 year-old, there was the Nawab ; in 1969 Indira Gandhi abolished the Privy Purses, and we got Mansoor ali Khan. The Tiger, however, remained constant. When he took the field to bat or to marshal the fielding and bowling resources, all of India waited expectantly, and the cricketing world looked on with great admiration and respect. He was very alert and quick on the field, quite astute as a captain, gave Indian cricket a direction with the spin-bowlers dominating batsmen all over the world, till Kapil Dev came in 1978. He was aggressive as a batsman, and aggressive as a teamsman. Only M.L. Jaisimha, Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni are comparable, while Kapil’s individual attacking game and Kumble‘s hunger for wickets compare person to person. Kumble and Dravid displayed attacking captaincy qualities but all too briefly.
What stands out about Tiger Pataudi is his overall attitude towards the game. He knew that the ball was there to be hit along the carpet or in the air, but hit certainly. When someone else hit it he had to stop it, not watch it roll over the boundary. And the match was there to be won or lost, not drawn out to a point of boredom as Geoff Boycott or Anshuman Gaekwad were won’t to do. Safety first , was a tactic that came in later years through other captains.
Pataudi will be remembered for many things: his opening over ,then the new ball tossed to Bedi; the ‘dropping’ of medium-pacer Subrata Guha for spinner Venkataraghavan after the playing eleven had first been announced; the loss of Captaincy to Ajit Wadekar by Vijay Merchant’s Casting Vote; the come back as captain against the WIndies in 1975 and a special treatment of Vanburn Holder after a ‘special‘ treatment from Andy Roberts; but most importantly his two knocks of over 70 in Australia handicapped with a hamstring injury beside the blind right eye.
For the 1967-68 series in Australia, ML Jaisimha was not in the touring team. By the end of the 2nd Test, India was desperately looking for a strong player. An ‘injured’ Chandrasekhar was sent back and Jaisimha flown in. Jaisimha scored a memorable century joining the team virtually from off the aeroplane. I certainly don’t know the politics of it all, but wonder whether Pataudi and Jaisimha, both very accomplished and very proud players, were on the best of terms. It is often said the Jaisimha was the best captain India never had.
That’s not the only Hyderabad note in Pataudi’s life apart from his nephew, Saad Bin Jung’s remarkable century against the West Indies (after which he just faded away). Moin-ud-Dowla was a prestigious tournament in those days.Pataudi played for Hyderabad alongside Jaisimha, Abbas Ali Baig and Abid Ali, a bit of a star-cast you might say.
Star he was. Burning bright. Like Blake’s Tiger.
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