Published: Sep 23, 2011, 11:04 AM (IST)
Edited: Apr 21, 2014, 04:01 PM (IST)
By Srinivasan Narayanan
Tiger Pataudi is one of the greatest captains ever in the history of the game. He used unconventional and bold methods to attack mighty oppositions and played to create winning possibilities. He was a captain who unified individual stars and moulded them into a national team. It was his blazing pioneering path of pride in performance and self belief that helped India attain the heights it finds itself now.
I distinctly remember the 1966 Brabourne Test against Gary Sobers’s West Indies for Tiger’s captaincy skills. India were reeling at 14 for three against the fearsome pace of Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith before Pataudi (44) joined Chandu Borde (121) to stem the rot in a 93-run stand. Confidence restored, India went on to score 296. Led by a century from opener Conrad Hunte, West Indies notched up 421. Indiafared slightly better in the second innings crossing 300 with the skipper scoring a half century and No 9 Budhi Kunderan top scoring with 79. West Indies needed to get 192 to win with a few overs on the fourth day and the entire fifth day left. After less than two overs from an apology of a new ball attack by ML Jaisimha and Ajit Wadekar, Pataudi brought on Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. The leg spinner, who had taken seven wickets in the first innings, immediately repaid his captain’s faith and took two wickets. West Indies end day four at 25 for two with 167 to get on a fifth day against a mesmerising Chandra. Debutant Clive Lloyd and Sobers ultimately took the Windies to a win, but not before Chandra took two more on the last day to reduce them to 90 for four to raise visions of exciting possibilities.
My elder brother fondly recalls how Pataudi changed the Indian approach to batting by daring to lift the ball in the air without any loss of batting elegance. He dared to declare an innings even when behind the opposition just to create possibilities of a win. He showcased brilliant fielding at cover in an era when Indian fielding consisted of escorting the ball to the boundary or waving it a good-bye from one was positioned.
Pataudi believed that a team should play its best eleven regardless of opposition or conditions. He walked the talk by using any three from the spin quartet of Chandrasekhar, Erapalli Prasanna, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Bishan Singh Bedi as his complete bowling attack and thus provided a model for the all-four-pace attack of Clive Lloyd from mid-70s.
Men like Sir Don Bradman and Richie Benaud led from the front with their own performances; men like Brearley and Illingworth brought the best out of their players like Ian Botham and John Snow. Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi either led with performance or motivated his men to realise their full potential. Gundappa Viswanath, Chandra, Prasanna and Bedi especially flowered under his encouraging leadership.
Pataudi leading India to its first overseas win in New Zealand in 1968 served notice on the world that India was shedding its self doubts about its ability to win abroad. The seminal triumphs in West Indies and England in 1971 came in its wake. His nine wins as captain included wins against Australia, England and West Indies too.
Pataudi’s cricketing career is a profile in courage. Losing an eye in an accident when he was he just 20 did not deter him from pursuing his career in cricket. He did not shy away when the terrifying accident to Nari Contractor pushed him to the captain’s job at age 21. He had just played three Tests before leading India in Barbados against a formidable West Indies led by Sir Frank Worrell and which had in its ranks the likes of Rohan Kanhai, Sobers, Hall and Alf Valentine. His epic innings of 75 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1967 after Graham McKenzie and fellow Aussie pacemen had reduced India to 25 for five is considered a top 25 Indian innings anywhere in the world.
After the 1974 debacle in England, India recalled MAK Pataudi to lead India against the emerging powerhouse of West Indies in 1974-75. His last hurrah as captain consisted of four Tests against whom his patented spin attack of Bedi, Prasanna and Chandra won two successive Tests at Calcutta and Madras to pull back India 2-2, before an inspired Lloyd scored 242 at Bombay to wrap up the series 3-2.
The Prince of Pataudi was made a commoner by an act of law. But then he was a thorough professional who despite being India captain played under ML Jaisimha for in the Ranji and Duleep Trophy matches for Hyderabad and South Zone respectively. He was an inspiration to youth as he led the Vazir Sultan Colts in the annual Moin-ud-Dowla tournament held in Hyderabad. I was fortunate enough to have seen him play some of these matches.
Mansur Ali Khan wrote his own chapter in the annals of Indian cricket. He defied destiny, looked fear in its face, transformed players into performing stars and winners, laid out a bold and innovative path for other skippers to follow and improvise.
The three score years and ten of MAK Pataudi’s life will remain an inspiring Tiger’s tale for generations of Indians especially cricketers.
(Srinivasan Narayanan, a Director and COO at ProPart Solutions India P Ltd, is a very passionate follower of cricket)
