The Prince among Cricketers
The Nawab of Pataudi is one of the finest cricketers to have graced the game of cricket. His achievements are all the more remarkable given that for the better part of his career he played with an impaired right eye caused by a car accident he suffered during his Oxford days. A glass splinter from a broken window damaged the lens on his right eye. Undeterred by the handicap, he batted with his right eye covered by his cap pulled down to an almost rakish angle. He would later say that he was afraid of getting injured when batting against fast bowlers but he was never afraid of facing them as some of his two–eyed detractors would later allege. In fact he settled down to negotiating pace better than spin.
Pataudi had the potential to become one of the greatest batsman of his time but because of the injury he had to “compromise with his ambition to become a truly great batsman” and concentrate instead on trying to make himself a useful one.
Popularly known as “Tiger Pataudi”, he was a panther on the field. He made the covers his own and he prowled the area with such authority that Dicky Rutnagar was once moved to describe him as “the grandfather of Jonty Rhodes.”
People hardly know him as Mansur and long after the princes were stripped of their titles he is still the Nawab of Pataudi as he was then.
Young Mansur attended Winchester where he smashed Douglas Jardine’s record for the most number of runs scored. In the sixties he played for Sussex during Ted Dexter’s time and also led them in 1966.
After Winchester, Mansur followed in his father’s footsteps to Oxford. His contemporaries included his Indian team mate Abbas Ali Baig and Javed Burki who later opened for and captained Pakistan.
Under Pataudi, Indian cricket went through a renaissance. It was under his tenure that Indian spin bowling blossomed. The Indian pace attack was no more than medium paced. Often Pataudi himself opened the bowling but he brought on the spinners early on in the game even before the shine was gone off the ball. Pataudi realised that India’s strength lay in spin and forced selectors to pick the strongest team even if it meant picking four spinners. In Prasanna, Bedhi, Chardrasekhar and Venkatraghavan India had a quartet of spinners who won matches.
More significantly he instilled the conviction among his players that they could win. Before his arrival it was not conventional to play the lofted drive but Pataudi changed all that.
One can only speculate about what he would have achieved had he been free of the handicap that hindered his game.
The Nawab of Pataudi is one of the finest cricketers to have graced the game of cricket. His achievements are all the more remarkable given that for the better part of his career he played with an impaired right eye caused by a car accident he suffered during his Oxford days. A glass splinter from a broken window damaged the lens on his right eye. Undeterred by the handicap, he batted with his right eye covered by his cap pulled down to an almost rakish angle. He would later say that he was afraid of getting injured when batting against fast bowlers but he was never afraid of facing them as some of his two–eyed detractors would later allege. In fact he settled down to negotiating pace better than spin.
Pataudi had the potential to become one of the greatest batsman of his time but because of the injury he had to “compromise with his ambition to become a truly great batsman” and concentrate instead on trying to make himself a useful one.
Popularly known as “Tiger Pataudi”, he was a panther on the field. He made the covers his own and he prowled the area with such authority that Dicky Rutnagar was once moved to describe him as “the grandfather of Jonty Rhodes.”
People hardly know him as Mansur and long after the princes were stripped of their titles he is still the Nawab of Pataudi as he was then.
Young Mansur attended Winchester where he smashed Douglas Jardine’s record for the most number of runs scored. In the sixties he played for Sussex during Ted Dexter’s time and also led them in 1966.
After Winchester, Mansur followed in his father’s footsteps to Oxford. His contemporaries included his Indian team mate Abbas Ali Baig and Javed Burki who later opened for and captained Pakistan.
Under Pataudi, Indian cricket went through a renaissance. It was under his tenure that Indian spin bowling blossomed. The Indian pace attack was no more than medium paced. Often Pataudi himself opened the bowling but he brought on the spinners early on in the game even before the shine was gone off the ball. Pataudi realised that India’s strength lay in spin and forced selectors to pick the strongest team even if it meant picking four spinners. In Prasanna, Bedhi, Chardrasekhar and Venkatraghavan India had a quartet of spinners who won matches.
More significantly he instilled the conviction among his players that they could win. Before his arrival it was not conventional to play the lofted drive but Pataudi changed all that.
One can only speculate about what he would have achieved had he been free of the handicap that hindered his game.
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