Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Nawab from Oxford

Amongst our friends, during our college and univ days, the chief criteria for judging a guy' worth were i) whether he could converse in English - even more whether he could think in English - and ii)whether he played cricket! This apparent elitism was nothing but a product of our self-assigned snobbishness. It was our way of trying to separate the wheat from the chaff, as it were. And so it came to pass that cricket, and all it stood for, became a high point in our lives.

Into this world of fanatics, a young Oxford and Sussex player, and a Nawab to boot, stormed in with his elan and accomplishments in those early years of the 60s. The Nawab of Pataudi, much like his late father in 1946, was picked to play for India! The buzz around this happening was unbelievable, more so when, after appearing in only three or four tests, captaincy was thrust upon him in the midst of the West Indies tour of 1962.

At the "ripe old age" of 21 years, Pataudi with his immense promise of talent(despite a horrific car accident which made him blind in one eye at the age of 20) and his enigmatic persona with an aura of royalty around him, became the cynosure of all eyes. Not surprisingly, therefore, our band of friends made it a point to watch every test match at the Eden, during Pataudi's heydays,
i.e. the decade of the 60s. Only, 1969 onwards did I watch Pat and his team at the Feroze Shah Kotla having moved to North India by then.

I had been watching test cricket from 1956 when Ian Johnson's Australians stopped over in India on their way back home after an "ashes" battle in England (which they lost) to play a 3-test series. It was the familiar story of those days. We lost the rubber 2-0 after being bundled out on a turning track at the Eden Gardens by the Australian opening batsman Jim Burke!

In the rest of the decade we actually went to the test matches to watch all the greats from the visiting sides! Though we did have some Indian heroes, we were well programmed to expect only token competitiveness from them. A draw against other teams was a much coveted result. Those were the years when the likes of Ray Lindwall, Bill Johnston, Ron Archer, Roy Gilchrist, Wesley Hall, Ian MacKiff, Alan Davidson and Fazal Mahmood, etc, annihilated India with their raw pace, steep bounce and canny swing. And who can forget the epic innings of 256 by Rohan Kanhai in 57-58? Or the fantastic ability of the peerless Gary Sobers, whether batting, bowling or fielding? Or the glimpses of the greats Neil Harvey, Collie Smith or Hanif Mohammad?

Then came the 60s. In this scenario now entered the Nawab, a stripling 21, leading men rather long in the tooth in a cricketing perspective. The transformation was quick and palpable. Suddenly, The Indians started to field instead of merely escorting the ball to the boundary every time the batsman hit the ball into the gaps! The Nawab himself was breathtaking in his pursuit, pick-up and throw while fielding. No surprise then that soon there were the likes of "Panther" Borde, Abbas Ali Baig, Russi Surti and the "Tiger" himself patrolling the covers and the onside. Who can forget the phenomenal Eknath Solkar at short leg; or the sharp Venkat, Abid Ali and Wadekar in the leg trap? India had metamorphosed into a fielding unit that could give today's Australia or South Africa a run for their money! This was the Tiger's foremost contribution. Incidentally it was the nature of his fielding that had won him the sobriquet of tiger during his stint with Sussex.

This one-eyed wonder had, by now, completely captured our imagination. Although I did not get to see a really big innings from him at the Eden, it is difficult to erase from the mind the image of Pataudi repeatedly dancing down the track to loft Tony Lock over the straight field. This was heady stuff; never before seen in test cricket! I remember that in a later test at Feroze Shah Kotla in the same series Pat scored an unbeaten double hundred. This was such a rare occurrence in Indian cricket those days! Only Vinoo Mankad (twice) and Polly Umrigar had managed the feat against New Zealand in 1955. I remember I was glued to the radio as Pat approached the landmark. When he hit a four to jump from 199 to 203 it felt as though we were listening to a bit of history being made. It was exhilarating! The whole stadium must have erupted! However, my joy was somewhat spoilt by the fact that, at that historic moment, the Maharaja of Vizianagram was on air. Old Vizzy, as the potentate was more familiarly known, had gone into patriotic raptures congratulating practically everybody in the Pataudi lineage, failing completely to describe the action on the cricket ground!

Pataudi was a hero several times over for us youngsters. His electric fielding, his innovative stroke-play and his bold captaincy tickled the cricket ribs in us. We worshipped his in-born stylish mien. And his aura of royal sophistication was simply awesome! All in all, a heady mixture which turned us into instant, life-long fans of his. I believe, that Pataudi was responsible to convert the Indian cricket team from being the subject of derisive laughter to one which could hold its head high and look the the opponents squarely in the eye.

The people of Kolkata (then Calcutta) just loved him. Later on, this love was reinforced many times over when Tiger began wooing the Bengali girl Sharmila Tagore, a celebrity in her own right, firstly as a member of the great Tagore family and secondly as a film star of repute, introduced to the industry by no less than Satyajit Ray. What was thrilling for us was that, during match days, we did manage to catch glimpses of their courtship once in a while in and around the entertainment hub of the city!

But life was not always a bed of roses for the young nawab.The terrible crash that took away the sight from one eye must have been a crushing blow for the 20 year old cricket prodigy who had the world at his feet with his prodigious talent and promise.
Certainly, all his fans were crushed. But not for him to despair. Reportedly, he told himself that though he may have lost the use of one eye he had not lost his objective! Soon he was back playing cricket and the rest, to use a cliche, is history. His determination to be back proved to be phenomenal, mind-boggling! When asked at some point of time as to how he overcame, when batting, the double vision he suffered for a while, he calmly said that he had learnt to play the inside line of the two deliveries that he saw at a time!!

A highly accomplished cricketer,a popular & well-connected individual and a mature personality honed by the early loss of his father and a sudden induction into the India captaincy (the youngest at 21), should have made him a natural for running the business of cricket in India. But, no. The BCCI had no use for a man like him. Is it because he was above all pettiness; all shenanigans? Is it because he always played with a straight bat? I shall leave it to the readers to decide.

I was much taken to the brand of humour that Pataudi often displayed - pithy, snappy and tongue-in-the-cheek. He lived up to the Shakespearean adage that " brevity is the soul of wit". Despite being an erudite and highly gifted person, the Tiger chose to be self-effacing, and amazingly so. On the limited occasions that he appeared on TV or radio he remained the picture of mature dignity, once in a while coming out with his classic one-liners. Who can forget his pronouncement from the TV commentary box as India threw away a match from a winning position - "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory!" A lot of people say this nowadays but it is the Tiger himself, and nobody else, who is the author of this gem!

Tiger Pataudi is no more. In mourning for him, which I do deeply, I fervently hope that people do not debase the legend by resorting to statistics in remembering him. That would be a deep insult to a great cricketer, who did a lot for the game which nobody in India had done before and who, at the end of the day was a true pioneer and path-finder.

RIP, Pat.

1 comment:

  1. Just found out that Pataudi was actually quoting Abraham Lincoln when he said "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory". My apologies to the departed Abe Lincoln and to whomsoever it may concern.

    ReplyDelete