While KP is articulate, there's merit in some voices that question the logic of getting a controversial figure to deliver the Pataudi lecture
Kevin Pietersen who will deliver the Pataudi Memorial Lecture. Pic/Getty Images
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There is never a shortage of drama in Indian cricket, the latest controversy being who should have been picked to deliver the MAK Pataudi Memorial Lecture at the BCCI annual awards function in Bangalore on June 12. The Board's acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary suggested the names of Nari Contractor, Abbas Ali Baig, Erapalli Prasanna and Chandu Borde, all of whom played alongside the late former India captain.
However, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) reportedly agreed to Kumar Sangakkara. With the Sri Lankan stalwart not available, the lecture will now be delivered by Kevin Pietersen, the former England batting great, now a television commentator. Nasser Hussain and Sourav Ganguly were the other names proposed by Syed Saba Karim, who recently joined the BCCI as General Manager (Cricket Operations). Choudhary's annoyance was reported in the media and he reckoned the spirit of the event was "derailed" when none of the names he suggested were chosen.
While it is understandable that the memorial lecture need not be delivered by a cricket personality who has played with or against Pataudi, the articulate Choudhary was not off the mark with his choice of names. Contractor, after all, was Pataudi's first Test captain before Charlie Griffith's nasty delivery put him out of Test cricket during an India v Barbados colony game in 1962. The pleasant Parsi never got picked to wear his country's colours again, despite recovering fully and getting runs for Gujarat and West Zone on the domestic scene. Nothing disheartened him in that post-injury period except when he was not considered in Pataudi's team for the 1967-68 tour of Australia and New Zealand despite getting a hundred in the Duleep Trophy final for West Zone against South Zone (an outfit, which Pataudi was a part of) just before the Australian tour.
Borde, who was on that tour of Australia, would have a lot to say had he been picked to be the speaker. He was Pataudi's vice-captain and led India in his absence during the opening Test at Adelaide, when the Nawab was laid low with a leg injury. Pataudi returned for the next Test in Melbourne where he followed up his first innings 75 with an 85, scored, as one writer put it, "with one eye and on one leg." It was a knock that caused Sir Donald Bradman to walk into the India dressing room and tell Pataudi that he would have been proud to play an innings like that. Borde's audience would have been keen to know what the dressing room was like when Pataudi's strokeplay had even the Australians in a trance.
Prasanna, another name recommended by Choudhary, made no secret that he was happiest playing under Pataudi. In his book, One More Over, he revealed how Pataudi dissuaded him from quitting after he didn't find a place in any of the three Tests on the historic 1971 tour of England. Pataudi, who was replaced by Ajit Wadekar as captain earlier that year, knocked at Prasanna's room door at the Cricket Club of India where the disillusioned off-spinner had checked in for a day on his return from England via Kuwait. He asked the wily off-spinner what he was going to do about his disappointment. Pataudi sensed Prasanna's quit-or-fight-on predicament and told him that he would only make it easier for the selectors by quitting. A convinced Prasanna then asked about Pataudi's future, given that he was no longer in the team. "I'm coming back," said Pataudi and he did – in the very next Test series India figured in, while Prasanna went on to play international cricket till 1978.
Baig... now here's a former player who can speak eloquently and he'll have plenty of Pataudi stories in his memory bank. Baig was not in the same car when Pataudi met with a road accident in 1961, but he was in the group of other Oxford University players as they returned home from a Chinese meal at Brighton. Pataudi decided to travel with his wicketkeeper teammate Robin Waters who drove the Morris 1000 car that was hit by an approaching vehicle. The accident caused severe damage to Pataudi's right eye. Back to the lecture. Pietersen appears all set to deliver it and he could well make it an evening to remember. But there is merit in some voices that question the logic of getting a controversial figure to deliver a lecture in memory of a man who always played with the straight bat as it were.
The BCCI and the CoA had the chance to play a chord that would have led to some sweet music for Indian cricket. It's like they opted for a heavy metal band to play in a memorial concert for a late rhythm and blues musician. The powers that be have not taken into account the fact that this year marks 50 years for India's first-ever overseas Test series win (NZ in 1968). How apt it would have been to invite a member of that Pataudi-led team to deliver the lecture and then felicitate the survivors of that side. There's still time for the awards night; there's still time to wake up to sensitivity. This 'golden' moment will not come again.
mid-day's group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance. He tweets @ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
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