Mansur Ali Khan "Tiger" Pataudi Passes Away

[Cevno]

SJS wrote a beautiful post about him ages ago, especially about the batting talent of a young Pataudi (he came into the team when he was a teenager). Can a mod help to dig that one out?

Found these going through some Old Posts -

Pataudi was injured in an accident that also involved the highly gifted Collie Smith (who died in that accident) and Garfield Sobers. One has seen accounts where Pataudi is refered to being as gifted as young batsman as the other two. Very high praise indeed.

Pataudi lost his right eye (most of the vision in it) in that accident. The fact that he came back to play international sport is a near miracle for any ball 7 bat/racket game. Most people who saw him as a youngster agree that but for his terrible handicap he would have been an all time great.

Pataudi has mentioned, in talking of how the accident affected him by telling that he could not light a cigarette properly either missing the end or lighting it in the middle. The two eyes give us the perspective of distance which is completely lost with one eye.

His partial but badly damaged vision in the right eye made it very difficult when he was trying to come back. He has mentioned that he would see two balls when batting and with trial and error he found that the inner ball (the image which his left eye was projecting) was the one to play. Then he decided to pull his cap over his right eye as keeping one eye closed while batting wasn't easy. He ruled out wearing an eye patch because he did not like it !

It still left the problem of judging how far the ball was from him during its flight from bowlers hand towards him. That this is a huge handicap is so obvious from seeing what a potent weapon a slower delivery is. His average and his test centuries are a huge achievement in the context of his injury.

By the way, he was one of the greatest fielders at covers/cover point the world has ever seen.

There was a fielding exhibition organised at Lord's in the sixties which was to feature both Pataudi an Colin Bland. Pataudi could not finally make it due to some other engagements. Bland thrilled the crowds by knocking down the six stumps at the two ends of the wicket with just seven fast and furious throws from the boundary. The one ball that missed did not miss by more than a few inches.

The fact that Pataudi was thought to be good enough to have a competition between him and the remarkable Bland is testimony to his great caliber.

By the way, Bland's exhibition that day gives a lie to the impression that good fielders are something very recent. What has happened, however, is that bad fielders are not tolerated as they were then if they were good in their other speciality so overall standards have improved. Plus, the diving and sliding to save boundaries is a new addition.

Pataudi was without doubt the best tactical captain who ever led India. Besides being a terrific tactician and student of the game, he was the first really aggressive captain we had. He did not come to the helm with the idea of not losing as had been the case before then (with the honourable exception of Lala Amarnath) but to try and win with the resources at his disposal.

The kind of fields Pataudi deployed were instrumental in showing off the great Indian spinners as the potent strike force they became. They almost always started bowling with a ring of fielders around the bat. This wasn't common for India.

He was very young, just 21, when he became captain and the seniors like Umrigar who gave him unreserved support although he had replaced them for the job, did so because he was clearly a man who had leadership qualities. This has been acknowledged by his seniors in the team although there was a big noise when Pataudi was first named vice captain and then captain.

 

[The Sean]

RIP.

A real one-off. He will be missed.

 

[The Sean]

Found these going through some Old Posts -

Quoting SJS isn't fair...

 

[Sanz]

RIP Tiger, your voice will be missed.

 

[Jono]

RIP. True Indian cricketing great.



I too, like Brumby, was surprised he was "only" 70 and felt that was quite young.

 

[weldone]

How sad - I think we can safely say we won't see his like again

For anyone interested who missed it first time round this feature was a tribute to him

Superb article! Didn't know that Tatenda Taibu broke his record of becoming the youngest test captain, was under the impression that he held the record till his death...

Has any other one-eyed man captained a Nation in any outdoor game of note?

 

[Himannv]

Totally missed this. RIP.

 

[nsniks]

Rip

 

[centurymaker]

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

west indies probably bowled too many bouncers at him...

 

[weldone]

Batting records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo

west indies probably bowled too many bouncers at him...

He was a superb player of hook and pull when he had both his eyes...had to curtail those shots later because he couldn't gauge the line of a bouncer with one eye...so yeah, you are probably right..

Whaddaplayyyah!!!

 

[centurymaker]

'How I lost my eye' - Excerpts from Pataudi's biography | Specials | NDTVSports.com

As any boxer who has had one eye closed by the blows of an opponent will tell you, it causes loss of perspective of judgement and distances.

At first I couldn't pick the length of the bowling at all. Then I reached a sort of compromise, but I suppose it took five years before I could claim to be completely on terms with my handicap.

It has been said that I adopted a more open-chested stance. I don't think, in fact, that this is so. I always did favour a position more square on that most text books recommend. I soon found that I could no longer hook, because I couldn't follow the ball round, and I had to curb my natural inclination to drive half-volleys because I was so frequently beaten by the yorker.