Tiger was a wonderful mixture of larrikin and worldliness, with dry wit thrown in
Tiger was a wonderful mixture of larrikin and worldliness, with dry wit thrown in
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Rip: Former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. Pic/Subhash Barolia
On India's 1967-68 tour of Australia he played two innings at the MCG that would've been exceptional if he'd had all his faculties and full fitness. As it was he scored 75 and 85 batting on one leg and with only one good eye against some excellent pace bowling. Cyclops couldn't have done a better job.
Despite a pulled hamstring he played in the Test because his team was in disarray and needed him. He batted at seven in the first innings with India floundering at 5/25. He couldn't have a runner and he could only perch on the back foot because his right leg was the good one but the bowlers were misguided if they thought he was batting under a handicap.
Under leaden skies and confronted by the fiery fast bowling of Graham McKenzie he propelled India's total to a more respectable 173. Two things stood out during that innings; a couple of shots he hit to the boundary and the different bat he used each time he resumed his innings after a break in play.
The first memorable shot was a pick up off his toes from a Dave Renneberg delivery and the ball landed about a metre inside the mid-wicket boundary. The second sizzling shot was when he hit McKenzie straight back over his head and it bounced once before crashing into the fence.
Then there were the five different bats and not one because of a breakage. In the dressing room that evening, I asked Tiger why he used a different bat each time. He replied: "I only brought a pair of boots, socks, creams and a shirt on tour, so I used someone else's gear. Each time we went out after a break I just picked up the bat nearest the door."
That same evening I asked him what he did for a job when he wasn't playing cricket; "Ian, I'm a Prince."
Not being familiar with the concept I continued to prod him about what he did between the hours of nine and five. Exasperated, he replied: "Ian, I'm a bloody Prince."
However, he was not one to leave the fielding to others in the manner of a Maharajah. In a documentary on India's Test cricket history, 'Tiger' was lauded as being one of the players, who lifted India's fielding standards. "Yes," he replied, "before I came along the batsmen used to go into the slips and drop all the catches."
His quick thinking wasn't restricted to captaincy and interviews. On the charter flight from Chandigarh to Lahore for the 1996 World Cup final, I was begged by Mark Mascarenhas to grab Shane Warne and sit in first-class despite only holding economy tickets. Mark had discovered there were twenty first-class seats on the flight and only sixteen officials. Along with Ravi Shastri, Mark was seated in first class and he figured if Warney was there then he wouldn't be ushered back intou00a0economy.
Hearing this, Tiger, seated in the first row of economy with his wife, asked the only official, who was seated on the flight at the time, if he could see his boarding pass. After looking at the pass with a red border for a few seconds, Tiger, with the deftness of a card sharp, flipped his economy pass over to hide the green border and handed it to the official.
A few seconds later, armed with one valid pass, both Tiger and his wife moved into first-class seats where they remained for the duration of the journey. Tiger was a wonderful mixture of larrikin and worldliness, with a dry wit thrown in. With his passing that breed of 'Tiger' is now extinct.
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