This reviewer first came across the name 'Tiger Pataudi' during his school days through a cricketing story narrated by his grandmother. Back then Pataudi sounded more like a cricket-cum-movie star who had retired from the game long before this reviewer was born.
However, what fascinated him is the series of cherished reflections penned by numerable renowned individuals who admired the tiger. There are questions that arise: Is the book only meant for the generation who watched the Tiger in his heyday? Or is it for the generation of today who are faintly aware of Pataudi's cricketing immensity?
Answers could be many but reading the book is a great opportunity to connect Tiger Pataudi afresh with the newer generation. The story-like memoirs in this anthology capture different elements of the late Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. The compilation has been edited by noted sports writer and journalist Suresh Menon. It is an enjoyable read reliving Pataudi the individual, player, friend, captain, husband, father, gentleman, hero and icon - all at the same time. The tiger and also the Nawab is scanned through the lenses of as many as twenty two close acquaintances at different periods of his life. The intimate and nostalgic foreword by Pataudi's widow and former actress Sharmila Tagore, reflecting on her husband, could not have been better.
Bishan Bedi's reflections on "the rarest of rare phenomena in Indian cricket" echoed on Pataudi's amazing quality to unify a team. Bedi's recollections relate to a man of great principle; astute yet fair. He is remembered by the left-arm spinner as the first Indian captain who brought the culture of 'Indianness' to the dressing room. A speech delivered before his players in which Pataudi made it clear that narrow-mindedness had no place in the team environment is revealing of the man - "Listen fellas, we are not playing for Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Bengal or Maharashtra. We are playing for India. Think India, for goodness's sake " That is indeed a patriotic binding, something many believe is Pataudi's biggest achievement. Bedi, in his reflective essay, also pinpoints the moment as having a profound effect on him as he made his first steps into Test cricket. There is also a humorous incident from their domestic cricket days when Pataudi asked Bedi to bowl the first over of the day even though he had bowled the final on the previous evening, just to see if the umpires were awake. What an amazing sense of humour indeed!
The anthology has a plenty of off-field reminiscences too which keep readers glued to it till they finish reading it. For instance, Sunil Gavaskar recounts how he, and most others in the Indian team, struggled with the correct title with which to address Pataudi. Engineer touchingly informs us how he was the first to let his team-mates know that Pataudi, despite being a Nawab, was "a regular guy". Former England captain Tony Lewis reprints pages from his India diary of 1972-73 in which he and Pataudi partook of a sitar concert in what was then Madras. John Woodcock, the man believed to have seen more Test cricket than anyone else in history, reveals how Pataudi, who had an aversion to air travel, produced a bottle of brandy he had 'rescued' from his Bhopal palace to steady the nerves on board a flight.
We have seen few individuals, with noble lineages behind them, turning into enigmas. The one - eyed cricketer was the foremost of players in Indian cricket. As you go through the essays you will also come to know of generations of a single family flourishing in different ways. Yes, generations of Pataudis can be labelled as 'genetically talented' people.
This anthology is a must read for those who love the nawab, Indian cricket and the history that lies behind it.
The reviewer is Assistant Editor, The Daily Observer
