Ritesh Misra, Mumbai, 11 July 2025
In 2007, India and England completed 75 years of test cricket, and to celebrate the occasion, the test series between England and India was named the Pataudi Trophy after the Pataudi family. A father and son duo, namely, Iftekhar Ali Khan Pataudi, the only cricketer to have played test cricket for both India and England, and Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, who is considered one of the best cricket captains of India.
Recently, the Pataudi Trophy was “retired” and the series has been renamed as the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy after two recent cricketing legends of India and England. This move has invited much criticism and much debate but that’s for another article.
Today’s article is about Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, fondly called Tiger Pataudi. For the purposes of this article I will call him Tiger.
Tiger’s dad, Iftekhar, had incurred the displeasure of his captain, Douglas Jardine, for dissenting against his controversial bodyline tactics. Douglas was a childhood prodigy and in 1919 had set the Schools record for maximum runs in a season. This was broken by Tiger Pataudi 40 years later, when he scored over 1000 runs for Wincestor School. Tiger Pataudi made his first class debut for Sussex at 16 and he was also the 1st Indian to captain Oxford University.
Sadly, at just 20, Tiger was involved in a car accident, as a passenger in a car driven by his teammate Robin Waters. A glass shard permanently damaged one eye. Most thought his cricket career was over but he learnt to play cricket again with one eye, mostly batting with a cap pulled down over his damaged right eye. He made his test debut less than 6 months after his car accident, and in his 3rd test, hit a century! He would go on to hit 6 test centuries in his 46 test matches. His batting was considered fluent, elegant, and aggressive as well. He was known for his attacking strokeplay, and he had no hesitation in playing lofted shots, which was an innovation ahead of hus times. Some of his best knocks included 203 and 148 versus England at Delhi and Leeds in 1964 and 1967, respectively, and he had courageous knocks of 75 and 85 versus Australia at Melbourne in the 1967-68 series.
His batting was beautifully described by Neville Cardus as, “There was suppleness and lithe grace which concealed power, as silkiness of skin conceals the voracity of strength in a beautiful animal of the jungle.”
Tiger Pataudi is considered to be one of india’s best cricket captains. He was captain at just 21, and only Tatenda Taibu and Rashid Khan, both decades later, were younger than him when they became captain of their national cricket teams. Tiger was captain for 40 out of his 46 Tests, and India won 9 of them. He was captain for India’s first test win and test series win over New Zealand in 1968. He is credited with nurturing India’s famed spin quartet – Bedi, Chandra, Prasanna, and Venkat. He is also credited with giving importance to fielding. He himself was considered the best fielder in the world and in fact the nickname ‘Tiger’ came as he was considered a fearless tiger on the cricket field. The Indian team was considered a struggling squad, but with his inspiring leadership he converted it into a fighting team. His positive attitude was praiseworthy and as a captain he always told his teammates that winning is always possible from any situation.
For his cricketing achievements, Tiger won the Wisden cricketer of the year award. The Government of India awarded him the Arjuna Award and the Padma Shri, while the BCCI honoured him with the CK Nayudu lifetime achievement award. After his active cricket career was over, he became a commentator, Indian team manager, and a match referee. He was also a Governing Council member of India’s popular IPL.
Tiger passed away in 2011 and is survived by his filmstar wife, Sharmila Tagore, an icon in her own right, and his filmstar son and daughter Saif and Soha. The Tiger Pataudi Memorial lecture was instituted in his name by the BCCI who made it an annual lecture and some of the speakers so far have been Sunil Gavaskar, Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Farokh Engineer, Mike Brearley, Kevin Pietersen and Virendra Sehwag.
Tiger Sir, you are a true Icon of india!
