MAK Pataudi

The Nawab of Pataudi – later Mansur Ali Khan – was, arguably, India’s greatest captain ever. Taking over the reins of the Indian team at the age of 21, barely months after being involved in a car accident that would impair the sight in his right eye forever, he led India in 40 of 46 Tests he played in, and won 9 of them. But more than anything else, he led Indian cricket out of its morass of defeatism and instilled in his fellow cricketers a belief that winning was possible. Under him, India achieved their first overseas Test victory against New Zealand in 1967. This he achieved by playing, as had become customary with him, three spinners, because he reckoned, against conventional thinking, that India’s only chance lay in playing to their strengths. As a batsman he was boldly adventurous and unorthodox for his times, and unafraid to loft the ball over the infield. His Test average was a modest 34, but what he could have achieved with complete sight is a matter of conjecture. Though he was the editor of a sports magazine for a decade, he remained generally aloof from the media and, for the most part, away from cricket administration. But till his death to a lung ailment in 2011 his was a voice widely respected in the cricket community. Sambit Bal

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