Mumbai: Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy will have to wait. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has decided to retain the name of the upcoming five-Test India-England series as the Pataudi Trophy. “The upcoming series will be the Pataudi Trophy,” an ECB spokesperson confirmed.
About two months back, the ECB had decided to retire the Trophy named after former India captain Mansur Ali Khan (Tiger) Pataudi and had written to the Pataudi family about the same. The move drew criticism from Sharmila Tagore, actress and wife of late Pataudi. “If the BCCI wants to or does not want to remember Tiger’s legacy, it is for them to decide,” she told HT, wanting Indian cricket board BCCI to intervene.
Pataudi’s teammate and former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was more scathing. “It shows a total lack of sensitivity to the contribution made by the Pataudis to cricket in both England and India. Here’s hoping that if an Indian player has been approached, he’ll have the good sense to politely decline — not only out of respect for two former India captains but also to avoid the same fate of having a trophy named after him retired after he is gone,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Sportstar.
The ECB it is understood contemplated re-naming the Trophy after Sachin Tendulkar and James Anderson, the two most capped and celebrated Test cricketers of their countries. It could not be confirmed if Tendulkar politely declined.
{{/usCountry}}The ECB it is understood contemplated re-naming the Trophy after Sachin Tendulkar and James Anderson, the two most capped and celebrated Test cricketers of their countries. It could not be confirmed if Tendulkar politely declined.
{{/usCountry}}India’s Test tours of England, 2007 onwards, have been played for the Pataudi Trophy — an idea commissioned neither by the ECB nor the Indian cricket board BCCI, but MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club), home to the Lord’s cricket ground. The conception was to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first-ever India-England Test series played in 1932. Tiger Pataudi’s father Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi represented both England and India in Test matches.
The MCC is known to have reached out to an influencial cricket administrator and may have been discouraged from changing the Trophy’s name.
Tiger Pataudi played 46 Tests for India between 1961-75, 40 of them as captain, scoring 2,793 runs at an average of 34.91, remarkably extending his career despite losing vision in one eye following an accident. He passed away in September 2011.
Tiger was also the youngest to captain India aged 21 years 66 days in 1962. 63 years later, India under Shubman Gill – he was picked to become the fifth youngest Test captain – will do battle for the Pataudi Trophy.
The news was yet to reach Sharmila. “It’s good, if they have retained the Pataudi Trophy,” she told HT on Sunday.