The Story Of The Pataudi Family In Cricket: A massive update regarding the upcoming India-England Test series was the name of the trophy the two teams will be playing for. The trophy has now been rebranded to the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy, honouring arguably the greatest Test cricketers from the two countries.
However, this rebranding has been quite controversial. All of India’s Test tours to England before the upcoming one saw the two teams compete for a differently named prize, the Pataudi Trophy, named after the famous Indian cricketing dynasty consisting of Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi and his son Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. Many names in the cricketing world, like former Indian Cricket Team captain Kapil Dev, have called the rebranding “strange”.
Most fans of the sport would understand the significance of honouring Sachin Tendulkar and James Anderson, two men who have played the most Test matches in the sport’s history. But why was the Pataudi family given the honour that one of the biggest cricket series in the world bore their name? Let’s talk about it.
The Story Of The Pataudi Family In Cricket
Before heading on to Mansoor “Tiger” Pataudi, we need to talk about his father, Iftikhar. Nawab Mohammad Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi was the captain of the Indian Cricket Team that toured England in 1946, a year before the nation’s independence from the British Raj.
Pataudi was the Nawab of the princely state of Pataudi (located in present-day Gurugram) under British rule from 1917 to 1947. Having got his college education from Oxford, he became a prominent cricketer at the college level in England. His performances even granted him a place in the English Cricket Team for the 1932 Ashes Tour. The Nawab was also named the Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1932.
In his Test debut against Australia in Sydney, Iftikhar scored a century, leading his team to a 10-wicket victory. Those who know their cricket history might know the 1932-33 Ashes as the infamous “Bodyline series”. And while the entire English team were in support of the ruthless tactics of their captain, Douglas Jardine, Pataudi dissented and refused to take the field under such tactics.
He continued his domestic career on English soil, playing 127 first-class games, but would return to India and would ultimately captain India on their tour to England, where the Indians won two and drew two of their three matches. This was also the end of his Test career, as he passed away in 1952.
Check Out: The Story Of The Pataudi Family In Cricket
Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi’s unique distinction of being the only cricketer to represent India and England in Test cricket makes it obvious why, on the 75th anniversary of his Indian Cricket Team debut, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) named the 2007 India’s Test tour to England the Pataudi Trophy. The name stuck for whenever the Men in Blue travelled to England and played the Three Lions in Tests.
Despite having such a massive influence on world cricket, IAK Pataudi isn’t even the most famous cricketer from his own family. That honour would go to his son, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, a.k.a. Tiger Pataudi.
Like his father, Pataudi Jr, as he came to be known in cricketing circles, was educated in England. He captained his school team in Winchester in 1959. But before that, in 1957, at the age of 16, he made his first-class debut for Sussex. However, his burgeoning career nearly came to a halt when, in a car accident in 1961, a shard of glass penetrated his right eye, damaging it permanently.
But in a remarkable story of returning from a career-threatening injury, after the vision in his injured eye was doubled, he learnt to bat with just one eye open.
With that, the one-eyed batter made his Indian Cricket Team debut just six months later, when the team toured England. A little under a year later, in 1962, Pataudi was named the captain of the national team at the age of 21.
While the likes of Vinoo Mankad and Nari Contractor shaped Indian cricket with their captaincy, Mansoor Pataudi is considered by many as the first great long-term Indian Test captain. Out of the 46 Tests he played in his career, he captained the national team in 40 of them from 1962 to 1975.
Check Out: The Story Of The Pataudi Family In Cricket
Tiger captained India to an incredible 1964-65 three-match series in Australia, which ended in a draw; India’s first-ever tour to New Zealand, which India won 3-1 in 1967-68; and the drawn series against the West Indies in 1974-75, in which the Men in Blue won two matches out of four.
MAK Pataudi captained the Indian team in 40 Tests, winning nine, losing 19, and drawing 12. This is a fantastic record for an Indian team that had minimal resources, funds, and a very small talent pool, seeing that cricket was not the most popular sport in a third-world country. Only five men have captained India in more Tests than Pataudi, all of them coming after him. Those are Sunil Gavaskar, Mohammad Azharuddin, Sourav Ganguly, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, and Virat Kohli.
Mansoor Ali Khan, in his 46-match Test career, scored 2793 runs at an average of 34.91, scoring six 100s, 16 50s, and a double-hundred. Apart from that, he also kept stumps for the national team on occasion and was considered one of the greatest fielders in the world in his time.
So, for a family that has made such an impact on Indian cricket while also having a unique connection to cricket in England, it was obvious why the name “Pataudi” was picked to represent the competitive England-India Test series for well over a decade. And while the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy might be accepted and cherished as an appropriate name for the series, the Pataudi Trophy name harkens back to the incredible shared cricketing past these two countries have.
Check Out: The Story Of The Pataudi Family In Cricket
Get the Latest Cricket Updates at IceCric.News. Also, Follow Our Social Media for Live Updates – Facebook & Instagram.
