Pataudi - Nawab Of Cricket

Essays by: Farokh Engineer, Abbas Ali Baig, Bishan Bedi, Mike Brearley, David Woolley, Naseeruddin Shah, Sunil Gavaskar, Ian Chappell, N. Ram, Tony Lewis, Vijay Merchant, M.J. Akbar, Suresh Menon, Ray Robinson, Mudar Patherya, Rajdeep Sardesai, John Woodcock, Rahul Dravid, Robin Marlar, Ted Dexter, Mike Coward, Saba Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan March 1962: The Indian team to West Indies had just lost its captain, Nari Contractor, to a sickening head injury. A strapping young man, playing only his fourth Test, walked out for the toss with Frank Worrell at Bridgetown. At twenty-one, he was not only the youngest member of the team, but also the youngest to captain a Test side. He had returned to playing cricket only months after an accident that left him with vision in only one eye. For the next decade, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, or 'Tiger', was the undisputed 'Nawab' of Indian cricket, captaining in all but six of the forty-six Tests he played, forging a national identity in a team often divided along regional lines, proving a game-changer by raising the standard of fielding and by unleashing a famed quartet of spinners, the likes of which the world had not seen. In Pataudi: Nawab of Cricket, players, writers, editors, actors, friends and opponents reminisce about their association with Tiger. This extraordinary anthology brilliantly put together by Suresh Menon, arguably India's best sports writer and journalist offers a fascinating portrait of a cricketer and a gentleman whose contribution to Indian cricket went beyond the number of Tests he played and the runs he scored.