MASTER OF UNDERSTATEMENT
FAREWELL, TIGER 5 January 2021 Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi would have turned 80 today, but he left us a little over nine years ago. Encomiums poured in for the courage that enabled him to play at the highest level despite losing his vision in one of his eyes, his heroic batting exploits on the numerous occasions he triumphed over his disability, his tactical nous as captain of India, and above all, his two major contributions to Indian cricket: the upliftment of fielding standards; and the expulsion of the scourge of regionalism in the team. There was an inspirational if somewhat unsubtle scene in the Hindi movie Chak De India, in which the coach played by Shahrukh Khan tells the Indian women’s hockey team that they are all India players, not representatives of Maharashtra, Bihar, Bengal or Haryana. Anyone familiar with Indian cricket of the 1960s can easily relate to this scene. It was Pataudi who first spoke those words unequivocally almost as soon as he took charge as captai...