Tiger Pataudi
September 22, 2011 12:17 PM   Subscribe

Mansoor 'Tiger' Ali Khan, erstwhile Indian cricket captain, has died. His legacy evokes a previous era in Indian history: a last-generation Royal blinded in one eye as a young man, he captained the Oxford then the Indian teams (his father had played for Oxford and England before captaining India), and married movie actress Sharmila Tagore with whom he had children who went on to become movie stars themselves. Some memories of a man known for his cricketing skill, style and charisma.
posted by the mad poster! (20 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
It's hard to think of a more fairytale story than this one -- the handsome cricket-captain prince, the beautiful movie-star from an Arts-royalty family. And one of their children became a Bollywood star, another an art-house queen. It's like a Mary Sue story.
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 1:07 PM on September 22, 2011


.

(dot ball)
posted by UbuRoivas at 1:10 PM on September 22, 2011 [3 favorites]


A giant. A legend. A man whose personality, leadership and skill had a major influence in shaping the game into what it is today.

In other cricket news, today the Marylebone Cricket Club announced that to celebrate the bicentenary of Lords in 2014 (Lords being the home of cricket and arguably the most famous sports ground in the world) they will stage a special 'MCC v. the Rest of the World' match. The last time a Rest of the World XI formed up was 2004, facing an Asian XI in a benefit match that raised A$17m for the tsunami appeal, the team comprised:

Dwayne Bravo (WI); Chris Cairns (NZ); Stephen Fleming (NZ); Chris Gayle (WI); Adam Gilchrist† (Aus); Darren Gough (Eng); Matthew Hayden (Aus); Brian Lara (WI); Glenn McGrath (Aus); Ricky Ponting* (Aus); Daniel Vettori (NZ) and Shane Warne (Aus) (captain).

The queue for the 2014 tickets starts here, a foot behind me.
posted by Hogshead at 1:39 PM on September 22, 2011


Condolences to all concerned. I hope I am not being rude when I ask what is a "last-generation Royal?
posted by longsleeves at 2:53 PM on September 22, 2011


Condolences to all concerned. I hope I am not being rude when I ask what is a "last-generation Royal?
India abolished privy purses by the Constitutional Amendment of 1971, after which the privileges and allowances from the Indian government were ended. Tiger Pataudi was Nawab of Pataudi when this happened, thus he is the last Nawab of Pataudi.
posted by peacheater at 3:18 PM on September 22, 2011


.
posted by lapolla at 4:02 PM on September 22, 2011


Fantastic. What a great story.
Also: that is some lineup, Hogshead.
It is my goal some day to figure out how a cricket match ends. Particularly a test match. There's strategy involved that makes most baseball managers seem like Leeeroy Jenkins.
posted by zomg at 4:29 PM on September 22, 2011


He was a good player, a fine captain and a great man. A sad loss to the game. It's unfortunate that the last series he saw was India's gutless capitulation to mighty England this summer for the trophy which bears his name. One wonders just how many runs he'd have scored with two good eyes, though you could make up a decent team of one eyed cricketers. Colin Milburn's career was more or less ended by his injury but Buster Nupen of South Africa was a wizard on the matting wickets of his time and one of the greatest lob bowlers of the 19th century, William Clarke of Notts, lost an eye in his late twenties and still took an incredible 795 wickets at just 10.06 in 143 first class games.
posted by joannemullen at 8:01 PM on September 22, 2011 [2 favorites]


Guess you'll be eventually caught even if you've bowled a maiden over eh?

On a more serious note, he gave India its first overseas victory. One of the reasons why India had stopped being an underdog in Tests.

He was also the only cricketing "elder" (member of the IPL governing council, "GC" in cricket-reporting parlance) to issue a limited mea culpa on the shoddy corporate governance that IPL has had, although he had become silent ever since.

.
posted by the cydonian at 8:06 PM on September 22, 2011


The IPL is going to flush Indian cricket down the toilet, a gold plated toilet with a platinum handle, but a toilet none the less. Their brief tenure as the number 1 test side may well be seen as their high water mark, rather than the shape of things to come.
posted by joannemullen at 10:15 PM on September 22, 2011


A friend told me over chat last night he'd been ill for a while, so while sudden news for the rest of us, it was not unexpected. 70 is far too young, my dad is 73.

.

India abolished privy purses by the Constitutional Amendment of 1971, after which the privileges and allowances from the Indian government were ended. Tiger Pataudi was Nawab of Pataudi when this happened, thus he is the last Nawab of Pataudi.

This is the part I couldn't understand (I'd been musing upon an FPP myself and doing some digging) - even if the privy purses were abolished by Indira Gandhi and the privileges revoked, the title should surely continue, no? There are all the other titles like the Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaipur not to mention Scindia which are still held?

So doesn't Saif actually become the 10th Nawab (title wise)?
posted by infini at 10:39 PM on September 22, 2011


the title should surely continue

The royal titles ("Nawab", "His Exalted Highness The Nizam ul Mulk", "Maharaja", "Rana", "Kunwar" etc) were presumably official titles until the abolition of the privy purse, just as academic ("Dr", "Professor" etc) or military titles are now. Saif Ali Khan is the 10th descendant of the Pataudi dynasty, but he can no longer officially be a Nawab. At least, that's how I read this.
posted by the cydonian at 11:24 PM on September 22, 2011


As far as I'm concerned, they retain equal status with the fine example in Midnight's Children - the Rani of Cooch Naheen.
posted by UbuRoivas at 11:41 PM on September 22, 2011


Ha! ok... found this BBC reference:

Maharaja Padmanabh Singh's title is not recognised by law since such feudal remnants were swept away by legislation in the early 1970s, but it still inspires respect in this deeply hierarchical country where the aristocracy is venerated despite rapid social change.

Though (tongue in cheek) what Saif inspires has prolly less to do with aristocracy and more to do with Bollywood ;p
posted by infini at 11:42 PM on September 22, 2011


From the article:
The biggest attraction in Jaipur these days is even younger than its new ruler: it is the three-year-old Indian Premier League cricket team the Rajasthan Royals, complete with lycra-clad cheerleaders and who play with highly paid imported stars.

Yes, about that: I've never really fully understood IPL teams' fixation with royalty; four out of ten teams (to include the just disqualified Kochi Tuskers) have either "Kings" or "Royals" in their names. Never could understand why.

The private school the kid Maharaja goes to is most likely Mayo College Ajmer.
posted by the cydonian at 1:44 AM on September 23, 2011


Yes, The Hindu (whom Google offered to purge for me) mentioned it was Mayo
posted by infini at 2:06 AM on September 23, 2011


have either "Kings" or "Royals" in their names. Never could understand why.

I always just assumed they're tied into sponsorship by tobacco or liquor companies. Chennai Superkings. Rajasthan Royals.
posted by UbuRoivas at 2:08 AM on September 23, 2011


'follow the money' straight to ITC huh?
posted by infini at 2:37 AM on September 23, 2011


Yes, about that: I've never really fully understood IPL teams' fixation with royalty; four out of ten teams (to include the just disqualified Kochi Tuskers) have either "Kings" or "Royals" in their names. Never could understand why.

Most regions in India were part of some Princely State or the other, so royalty is an easy way to signify power, class, nobility and status in India. Pretty much every community in India has had some king of the past they look up to, or an equivalent.

'King' and 'royal' are simple English words that reach out to the masses that are otherwise unacquainted with English. The Bangalore Royal Challengers however, were just named because of the Royal Challenge brand.
posted by Senza Volto at 6:32 AM on September 23, 2011


I feel vaguely illiterate
posted by infini at 7:07 AM on September 23, 2011 [1 favorite]


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