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NOT many illustrious cricketers of the past or for that matter of the present generation could claim to have as famous a son as they themselves were when young. The great Sir Don Bradman’s son John was so embarrassed for not living up to his class as a cricketer that he changed his name to Bradson, for some time, so that he is not always tagged to his father’s name.
Sir Len Hutton’s son Richard did play for England but only briefly. Sir Viv Richards’s son Mali didn’t make it. In Pakistan, Shoaib Mohammad made his father Hanif Mohammad proud but never really reached the same status nor did India’s all-rounder Mohinder Amarnath emulating his father Lala Amarnath, the first century maker in Tests for India.
The tragic demise of Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, known as the Nawab of Pataudi Jr, at Delhi yesterday brings to mind then the genius that he was as one of the finest batsmen that India produced and undoubtedly one of the top-class fielders that I have seen over the years having watched men of the type of Colin Bland, Clive Lloyd, Mohammad Azharuddin and of course Jonty Rhodes.
Even his father Nawab Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi who died in 1952 while playing polo, had not reached those heights in the game as did the son Pataudi Jr. The senior Nawab played only six Tests, the first for England in the infamous bodyline series in 1932 hitting a hundred on debut at Sydney and then later led India in Tests. The only Indian to have played for England and India.
His son Mansur though was a player apart, a lot more talented and skilful than his father and tactically an even greater leader which is ominous for the fact in that in 46 Tests that Mansur played for his country, he led them in 40. His team won nine of those matches, giving India the belief that with perseverance India could win matches overseas.
Under his captaincy, India for the first time in their history won a series abroad, in New Zealand in 1968, the same year when Pataudi Jr was named as the Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
He employed a multi-spinner strategy to bring Indians in the limelight, on the pattern of which Clive Lloyd later introduced his four-pronged fast bowling battery.
It was at 21 that Pataudi was handed over the mantle of Test captaincy in the fourth Test on the West Indies tour of 1962 to replace injured captain Nari Contractor who suffered head injury off a Charlie Griffith bouncer.
His greatness as a batsman could be gauged from the fact that despite losing an eye in a car crash in England in 1961 he continued to play, hitting three of his six Test centuries with only one left eye in focus.
I am lucky to have had his company on many occasions. Knowing him from his playing days for Oxford University and Sussex, he was the delight of the crowd as he pounced over the ball fielding at covers or playing stylishly whether driving in the covers or cutting and pulling the fast bowlers and spinners.
His greatest innings is considered to be the 75 he scored at the MCG while carrying a muscle injury; he had a runner and only one eye. No one would even notice that in such adversity — as India struggled at 25 for 5 — that he would play with such carefree abundance. The doyen of Indian writers K.N. Parbhu described it as ‘Bradmanesque’ in quality.
His highest score, however, was 203 not out against England at Delhi in the 1964 Test.
Appropriately nicknamed ‘Tiger’, he always filled the billing with his alertness and speed. Being a Nawab, a title he had to give up and others too after India abolished royal status of the princely states, he never posed as one and remained a down-to-earth man to his last.
I cannot forget the day when I took a train journey from Jallandhar to Delhi after the drawn Test at Jallandhar in 1983. I was in the same cabin of the train with him, Chandu Borde, another Indian captain and with M.L Jaisimha, a very fine opener and Asif Iqbal. It was the most enjoyable train journey that I have had in their company. I realised then how gracious he was and how infectious his company could become as he told us story after story when he was the captain.
Only last month, I met him with his wife Sharmila Tagore at The Oval when he entered the Hobbs gate to be escorted to the Pavilion to present the Pataudi Trophy to England for their Test series victory over India.
Though Pataudi is no more with us, profound memories of his will make him live in many minds as a legendary captain and cricketer that India ever produced.
