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Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi nawab
Nawab of Pataudi
Nawab of Pataudi
Titular	1952–1971
Predecessor	Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi
Head of the Pataudi dynasty
Tenure	1971-2011
Successor	Saif Ali Khan
Born	Mohammad Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (1941-01-05)5 January 1941 Bhopal, Bhopal State, British India (present-day Madhya Pradesh, India)
Died	22 September 2011(2011-09-22) (aged 70) New Delhi, Delhi, India
Burial	Pataudi, Haryana, India
Spouse	Sharmila Tagore ​(m. 1968)​
Issue	Saif Ali Khan (son) Saba Ali Khan (daughter) Soha Ali Khan (daughter)
House	Pataudi
Father	Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi
Mother	Sajida Sultan
Religion	Islam
Occupation	Cricketer
Cricket information
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm medium
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 104)	13 December 1961 v England
Last Test	23 January 1975 v West Indies
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1957–1970	Sussex
1960–1964	Delhi
1965–1975	Hyderabad
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class Matches 46 310 Runs scored 2,793 15,425 Batting average 34.91 33.67 100s/50s 6/16 33/75 Top score 203* 203* Balls bowled 132 1,192 Wickets 1 10 Bowling average 88.00 77.59 5 wickets in innings 0 0 10 wickets in match 0 0 Best bowling 1/10 1/0 Catches/stumpings 27/– 208/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 27 September 2011

Nawab Mohammad Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (also known as Mansur Ali Khan or M. A. K. Pataudi; 5 January 1941 – 22 September 2011; nicknamed Tiger Pataudi) was an Indian cricketer and a former captain of the Indian cricket team.

Pataudi was appointed India's cricket captain at the age of 21, and described as "one of (its) greatest". Pataudi was also called the "best fielder in the world" of his time by commentator John Arlott and former England captain and contemporary, Ted Dexter.

Mansur Ali Khan was the son of Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, the last ruler of the princely state of Pataudi during the British Raj. After the death of his father in 1952, Pataudi succeeded him in receiving a privy purse, certain privileges, and the use of the title "Nawab of Pataudi" under terms accepted earlier when princely states were absorbed into independent India. However, all were ended in 1971 by the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of India. He received the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001, the highest honour bestowed by BCCI on a former player.

Early life

Born in Bhopal, Mansoor Ali Khan was the son of Iftikhar Ali Khan, himself a renowned cricketer, and the Nawab Begum of Bhopal, Sajida Sultan. His uncle was Sher Ali Khan Pataudi, a Major-General in Pakistan Army. His maternal grandfather, Hamidullah Khan, was the last ruling Nawab of Bhopal, and his aunt, Abida Sultan, was the princess of Bhopal. Kaikhusrau Jahan, the Begum of Bhopal, was his great-grandmother, and Shahryar Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, and the cricketer Ashiq Hussain Qureshi, were his maternal cousins. He was the former Nawab of Bhopal State and Pataudi State. The Pataudi family traces their origin to Faiz Talab Khan, an ethnic Pashtun from the Barech tribe of Kandahar, Afghanistan, who became the first Nawab of the Pataudi State in 1804.

He was educated at Minto Circle in Aligarh and Welham Boys' School in Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Lockers Park Prep School in Hertfordshire (where he was coached by Frank Woolley), and Winchester College. He read Arabic and French at Balliol College, Oxford.

His father died while playing polo in Delhi on Mansoor's eleventh birthday in 1952, whereupon Mansoor succeeded him as the ninth Nawab. Although the princely state of Pataudi had been merged with India after the end of the British Raj in 1947, he held the title until the entitlements were abolished by the Government of India through the 26th amendment to the constitution in 1971.

Cricketing career

Pataudi Jr., as Mansoor came to be known during his cricket career, was a right-handed batsman and a right-arm medium pace bowler. He was a schoolboy batting prodigy at Winchester, relying on his keen eyes to punish the bowling. He captained the school team in 1959, scoring 1,068 runs that season, beating the school record set in 1919 by Douglas Jardine. He also won the public schools rackets championship, with partner Christopher Snell.

He made his first-class debut for Sussex in August 1957, aged 16, and also played for Oxford while he was at university and was the first Indian captain there. On 1 July 1961, he was a passenger in a car, driven by team mate Robin Waters, which was involved in an accident in Hove. A shard of glass from the broken windscreen penetrated and permanently damaged his right eye. A surgeon named Dr. David St Clair Roberts was called to operate on his eye, and was praised by Pataudi for saving one of his eyes. The damage caused Pataudi to see a doubled image, and it was feared this would end his cricketing career, but Pataudi was soon in the nets, learning to play with one eye.

Despite his eye injury less than 6 months before, he made his Test debut playing against England in Delhi in December 1961. He found it easiest to play with his cap pulled down over his damaged right eye. He scored 103 in the Third Test in Madras, helping India to its first series win against England. He was appointed vice-captain for the tour to the West Indies in 1962. In March 1962, Mansoor became captain of the Indian cricket team after the sitting captain, Nari Contractor, was ruled out of the Fourth Test in Barbados due to an injury sustained by Contractor batting against Charlie Griffith in a tour match against Barbados. At 21 years and 77 days, he held the world record for the youngest Test captain until he was surpassed by Zimbabwe's Tatenda Taibu in May 2004 and later by Afghanistan's Rashid Khan in September 2019. As of November 2022, he remains the youngest Indian Test captain and third youngest International Test captain worldwide.

He played in 46 Test matches for India between 1961 and 1975, scoring 2,793 runs at a Test batting average of 34.91, including 6 Test centuries. Mansoor was captain of the Indian cricket team in 40 of his 46 matches, only 9 of which resulted in victory for his team, with 19 defeats and 19 draws. His victories included India's first ever Test match win overseas against New Zealand in 1968. India went on to win that series, making it India's first ever Test series win overseas. He lost the captaincy of the Indian cricket team for the tour to the West Indies in 1970–1, and did not play Tests from 1970 to 1972. He returned to the India side captained by Ajit Wadekar in 1973, for the Third Test against England, and captained India against West Indies in 1974–5, but was finally dropped as a player in 1975.

Between 1957 and 1970 Mansoor, following his countrymen Ranjitsinhji and Duleepsinhji, played 137 first class matches for Sussex County Cricket Club scoring 3,054 runs at an average of 22.29. He captained Sussex in 1966. In India, he played first-class cricket for Delhi in the North Zone until 1966, and then for Hyderabad in the South Zone.

He was an Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year in 1962, and a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1968. He published an autobiography, Tiger's Tale, in 1969. He was the manager of the India team in 1974–5, and referee for two Ashes Tests in 1993. He was later a member of the council of the Indian Premier League. In 2007, in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of India's Test debut, the Marylebone Cricket Club has commissioned a trophy for Test match series between India and England which was named the Pataudi Trophy in honour of his father, the 8th Nawab.

Pataudi holds the record for facing the most balls in a single test match when batting at number six position in Test history (554).

Political career

Pataudi also contested the Lok Sabha elections from the Gurgaon constituency in 1971 under the Vishal Haryana party, he came third and lost to Tayyab Husain earning a total of 22,979 votes. He later congratulated Chaudhary Rahim Khan with an elephant ride for defeating Hussain in the Lok Sabha elections from the Faridabad constituency in 1984.

Personal life

Mansoor was in a steady relationship with Simi Garewal. Simi admitted in an email interview that she was dating Pataudi and that he came to visit her on the sets of Teen Devian, in Avijit Ghosh's book, 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May Have Missed. He broke up with her after he met Sharmila Tagore, whom he married on 27 December 1968. They had three children: Saif Ali Khan (b. 1970), a Bollywood actor, Saba Ali Khan (b. 1976), a jewellery designer, and Soha Ali Khan (b. 1978), a Bollywood actress and TV personality. The actress Kareena Kapoor Khan is his daughter-in-law, and the actress Sara Ali Khan is his granddaughter. Actor Kunal Khemu is his son-in-law.

2003 Poaching case

Pataudi was arrested in October 2003 over the poaching of a blackbuck and two hares, but was released on bail. The case went on for nine years, and in January 2015, four years after his death, six people were convicted. This case is unrelated to the other blackbuck poaching case of Salman Khan that his son Saif Ali Khan Pataudi was involved in.

Death

Pataudi was admitted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Rajendra Nagar, Central Delhi on 25 August 2011 with an acute lung infection caused by chronic interstitial lung disease which prevented his lungs from exchanging oxygen properly. He breathed his last on 22 September 2011 due to respiratory failure. He is buried in Pataudi, Gurgaon district, Haryana.

Awards and recognitions

• 1964 Arjuna Award
• 1967 Padma Shri
• 2001 C. K. Nayudu Award

In honour of his outstanding contributions towards cricket, the Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi Memorial Lecture was instituted by the BCCI on 6 February 2013 with the inaugural lecture by Sunil Gavaskar on 20 February 2013. Sports complex building of Jamia Millia Islamia University was named after him in May 2016.

References

1. "A passage to Mayfair". The Economist. 27 July 2013.
2. "Dexter dubs Pataudi world's best fieldsman". The Indian Express. 29 August 1963. p. 10.
3. Ramusack, Barbara N. (2004). The Indian princes and their states. Cambridge University Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-0-521-26727-4. The crucial document was the Instrument of Accession by which rulers ceded to the legislatures of India or Pakistan control over defence, external affairs, and communications. In return for these concessions, the princes were to be guaranteed a privy purse in perpetuity and certain financial and symbolic privileges such as exemption from customs duties, the use of their titles, the right to fly their state flags on their cars, and to have police protection. ... By December 1947 Patel began to pressure the princes into signing Merger Agreements that integrated their states into adjacent British Indian provinces, soon to be called states or new units of erstwhile princely states, most notably Rajasthan, Patiala and East Punjab States Union, and Matsya Union (Alwar, Bharatpur, Dholpur and Karaulli).
4. "The Constitution (26 Amendment) Act, 1971", indiacode.nic.in, Government of India, 1971, retrieved 9 November 2011
5. Ramusack, Barbara N. (2004). The Indian princes and their states. Cambridge University Press. p. 278. ISBN 978-0-521-26727-4. Through a constitutional amendment passed in 1971, Indira Gandhi stripped the princes of the titles, privy purses and regal privileges which her father's government had granted.
6. Schmidt, Karl J. (1995). An atlas and survey of South Asian history. M.E. Sharpe. p. 78. ISBN 978-1-56324-334-9. Although the Indian states were alternately requested or forced into union with either India or Pakistan, the real death of princely India came when the Twenty-sixth Amendment Act (1971) abolished the princes' titles, privileges, and privy purses.
7. "C.K. Nayudu award for Kapil Dev". The Hindu. 18 December 2013. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 25 April 2023.
8. "Bhopal gave Mansoor Ali Khan actual royal status". Hindustan Times. 22 September 2011. Archived from the original on 13 November 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
9. "Pataudi had a long association with Bhopal". The Hindu. 23 September 2011. Retrieved 6 July 2013.
10. The Hindu, Sunday, 3 Aug 2003 - Royal vignettes: Pataudi: The Afghan connection
11. "Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi: Biography, Facts, Life Story".
12. ^ Obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2011
13. ^ ESPNcricinfo – Nawab of Patudi
14. "King of Indian cricket". The Economist. 1 October 2011. Retrieved 30 August 2012.
15. "Royalty on the cricket field". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
16. 'Captaincy has not changed... only the pressures have...'
17. ^ Barbadose by dose Archived 26 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine SPORTSTAR Vol. 25 :: No. 18 :: 4–10 May. 2002
18. Obituary, The Guardian, 25 September 2011
19. Records: Youngest Test Captains. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
20. "Gwaskar praises the man for his performance". The Hindu. 12 June 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
21. ^ "Legendary cricketer Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi passes away". The Times of India. 22 September 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
22. Christopher Martin-Jenkins (1981). The Wisden Book of County Cricket. Wisden. p. 373. ISBN 0-362-00545-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
23. Obituary, The Independent, 24 September 2011
24. "Patuadi Crowned as Nawab of Cricket". Hindustan Times. 29 July 2014. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
25. "Batting records. Test matches". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
26. "IndiaVotes PC: Gurgaon 1971". IndiaVotes. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
27. "Soha Ali Khan shares an endearing picture of parents, Sharmila Tagore and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi on their wedding anniversary". The Times of India.
28. "Tiger Pataudis untold tale". The Times of India.
29. "Tiger Pataudi's romance with Sharmila to air on Rendezvous with Simi Garewal in his memory". 3 October 2011.
30. "To Saif with love: Soha & Saba". rediff.com.
31. "Pataudi booked under Wildlife Act: Police". Rediff. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
32. "6 convicted in Pataudi blackbuck poaching case". The Times of India. Retrieved 9 March 2018.
33. "India loses its favourite Tiger". The Times of India. 22 September 2011. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
34. "Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi passes away". Cricket Country. 22 September 2011. Archived from the original on 24 September 2011. Retrieved 22 September 2011.
35. "Tiger on final journey to Pataudi". Indiavision news. 23 September 2011. Archived from the original on 3 January 2013.
36. "An annual lecture in memory of Pataudi". The Hindu. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
37. "Tiger brought fun to the game". The Hindu. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
38. "Jamia - Press Releases - Latest - Jamia to unveil Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi Complex and Virender Sehwag Pavilion". Jamia Millia Islamia University. Retrieved 15 September 2022.

External links

• Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi at ESPNcricinfo
• Obituary of The Nawab of Pataudi. The Daily Telegraph. 23 September 2011.

• 1941 births
• 2011 deaths
• Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
• Deaths from respiratory failure
• Delhi cricketers
• Indian cricketers
• Indian Muslims
• Indian Sunni Muslims
• India Test cricket captains
• India Test cricketers
• International Cavaliers cricketers
• Nawabs of India
• North Zone cricketers
• Oxford University cricketers
• Cricketers from Bhopal
• People educated at Lockers Park School
• People educated at Winchester College
• People from Gurgaon district
• Sussex cricket captains
• Sussex cricketers
• Indian expatriate cricketers in England
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• Recipients of the Arjuna Award
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• Vazir Sultan Tobacco cricketers
• Wisden Cricketers of the Year
• Indian people of Pashtun descent
• Indian National Congress politicians from Madhya Pradesh
• 20th-century Indian politicians
• E. W. Swanton's XI cricketers
• Cricketers from Delhi
• Tagore family
• Saif Ali Khan