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MAK Pataudi passes away

speed_demon

By speed_demon
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BERGKAMP Newbie

BERGKAMP

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Greg chappell once said pataudi was an inspiration for him' date=' he admired him for playing with one eye in australia on bouncy tracks.. RIP[/quote'] whereas half of the current squad ran away from england like pussies at the first sign of a little injury. TIGER SIR :hatsoff:
ravishingravi Grand Master

ravishingravi

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Wow, this is sad sad news. RIP. It is sad losing this legend who played with one eye for his country and very well at that. Contemporary players who would sacrifice their country's pride at the slightest show of carrot ( money ) could learn from the man.

Sachin=GOD Newbie

Sachin=GOD

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Pataudi: India’s visionary and charming captain

A ‘Tiger’ on the field and a Nawab off it, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi was unarguably one of India’s best captains ever and a batsman par excellence even though damaged vision didn’t allow him to realise his potential statistically. The 70-year-old cricketer, who breathed his last in New Delhi on Thursday evening after battling a lung infection, led India in 40 of the 46 Tests he played and would forever be remembered for leading the country to its first Test series win abroad. Although, in overall analysis, the teams under him won just nine of the 40 matches he led in, Mr. Pataudi instilled the belief that victory is possible in a side that was defeatist in its approach especially while playing outside India. With 2793 runs at an average of 34, which included six hundreds and 16 half centuries, Mr. Pataudi’s stats are not too impressive but they don’t reveal the colossal figure he became in Indian cricket with his fine leadership and extravagant stroke play. Son of Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal who captained the country in 1946, the right—handed batsman made his debut for India at the age of 21 in a drawn match against England here in 1961. Just a few months before his debut, Mr. Pataudi had damaged his vision in a car accident but Mr. Pataudi still managed to impress with a 103-run knock in the fifth Test of that series, ensuring selection for the tour of the West Indies. Nari Contractor was leading the side on that tour and Mr. Pataudi was merely warming the benches in the first two Tests. But the scene changed dramatically when Contractor got injured during a practice match. With seniors in the team showing reluctance to take over captaincy, a three-Test old Mr. Pataudi was handed the leadership reins and he held on to that position for nearly a decade. His finest moment came in 1967 when India defeated New Zealand 3-1 to record their maiden overseas Test series triumph. In 1964, Mr. Pataudi was bestowed the Arjuna Award before being honoured with a Padma Shri in 1967. A star not just on field but off it too, Mr. Pataudi married the then reigning queen of Indian cinema Sharmila Tagore in 1969 and the glamorous couple had three children -- Saif Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan and Saba Ali Khan. Interestingly, none of Mr. Pataudi’s children took to cricket. While Saif and Soha made a name for themselves as film actors, Saba chose to stay away from the limelight as a jewellery designer. After being dropped from the national team in 1975, Mr. Pataudi played first-class cricket for a year more before retiring. Post-retirement, Mr. Pataudi served as an ICC match referee between 1993 and 1996, incharge of two Tests and 10 ODIS during the period. Mr. Pataudi had a brush with controversy too when he was arrested for poaching an endangered Blackbuck in 2005. In 2008, Mr. Pataudi was appointed to the Governing Council of the Indian Premier League and after serving for two years, he refused the BCCI’s offer to continue in the job in 2010 in an honorary capacity. In fact, he went on to sue the BCCI for non-payment of dues earlier this year.
The Hindu
Sooda Mentor

Sooda

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Fine captain and good bat. Excellent fielder too. RIP. There are stories of his arrogance too though. Taking over the reins as skipper at 21 is just part of the story- he did so after Contractor got hit on the head and nearly killed by Griffiths.

Crookbond Newbie

Crookbond

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This is a wonderful article which personifies Pataudi. The writer captures the true emotion of his loss and service to Indian cricket. http://www.espncricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/533501.html

Spending an hour with Tiger Pataudi was often a matter of trying to get a reaction from granite; he could put you off not by what he said but by what he didn't. And spending an hour with Tiger Pataudi could also be a pain in the gut because he could make you laugh until it hurt. And that is what Pataudi was: aloof yet witty, plain but direct, regal yet casual. He was so many opposites that eventually you stopped trying to classify him. He was the man you could weave legends around: being hit on the jaw by Andy Roberts, then hitting Vanburn Holder for a straight six, then hitting four fours in succession in front of 90,000, hitting 85 at the MCG, which Ray Robinson described as one of the gutsiest innings ever at that ground, becoming a legend in the covers - and to think that he did all this with only one eye. Sunil Gavaskar described it well: if you want to appreciate the genius of Pataudi, spend a day with an eye closed and then try to light a candle. He was the absentee editor of the magazine for which I worked, Sportsworld. He lived in Delhi; we slaved in Calcutta. He had discovered the magic of decentralisation and empowerment before liberalisation. The magazine, structured by twenty-something-year-olds, was one in the editing of which Pataudi scarcely took an active interest. His name would decorate the tombstone. And then suddenly one day the Sportsworld peon would come in carrying a scroll from the telex room headlined with the words "editorial by mak pataudi". Every typewriter key would freeze mid-air as owners pounced to read the mind of the man who usually dared to differ. Even though he never edited the magazine, he probably read every word that went into it. In 1987, Pataudi, Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath and I went on a trip to Tihar jail at the behest of Kenneth Larkins (jailed on charges of espionage), who was arranging cricket matches to enhance a sense of reform. Pictures were clicked. Three days later Pataudi nixed the scoop on the grounds that this was akin to glorifying someone who had sold the country. Two years later, convinced that Pataudi was not looking, a picture of the visit was used. The following week a telex message arrived addressed to me: "I thought we had an agreement." He was a man who trusted his instincts; like on the last morning of the Eden Gardens Test against West Indies in 1974-75, when he continued to persist in having an erratic Bhagwat Chandrasekhar bowl to a plundering Clive Lloyd. A couple of overs later, Chandra bowled Lloyd, the West Indians panicked, and India won an unforgettable Test. I tried reading his mind. Why had he persisted with Chandra? Pataudi would not tell, not because it was a profound secret but because deep down he probably knew that it was only a gambler's gut that could not be intellectualised. Pataudi seldom proffered advice on his own volition, but the rare occasion when he did was when Kapil Dev was dropped from the Indian team after a reckless shot that supposedly lost India the Test, and in the reams that were written immediately thereafter, the one that cut through the clutter was a private message that Pataudi, then editing Sportsworld, sent to Kapil: "Whatever you do, don't speak to the media." The one-liner saved Kapil from making things worse and he was promptly recalled a Test later. If you got to know him well, he would tell you difficult-to-believe stories of maharajas and cricketers. He was in England when the privy purse was abolished and someone at the ground asked how his name should go up on the scoreboard now that "Nawab of Pataudi" had become an anachronism. He replied: "As far as I care, you can call me John Smith." Pataudi was the last bridge between the medieval and the modern. Never again will we have a 21-year-old leading India, never again will there be a cricketing blue-blood keeping his place on merit, never again will there be someone who could probably claim, "My father played for England and India". An age has ended. In more senses than one.

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