Out for a Buck

Fate then handed him the captaincy when Nari Contractor was felled by a rising ball in the West Indies. Being a prince couldn8217;t have been easy in those days of heady Nehruvian Socialism yet, like his father, Tiger was blessed with man-management skills.

And a shrewd cricketing brain, for it was under his stewardship that India first deployed the three-pronged spin attack that would later become legendary. It was partly forced upon him by circumstances 8212; the perennial dearth of fast bowlers 8212; and he was lucky to have at his disposal the peerless skills of Messrs Bedi, Prasanna and Chandrashekhar. The results were immediate: the first overseas series victory in New Zealand and a draw against the Ashes-winning Australians under Bobby Simpson.

But handling Antipodean bowling was nothing compared to the politics of Indian cricket and the Tiger was defanged; the new king of the ring was Ajit Wadekar, who fully reaped the successes of the policies he8217;d inherited.

Pataudi, by now married to the scion of another illustrious Indian family, repaired to his private world. He kept aloof from cricket on and off the field and those reporters who called him for a quote on the latest controversy would get a polite but firm 8216;8216;I8217;m not in the loop8217;8217;. Yet he was always willing to help out an old friend or colleague by cutting the ribbons for an academy or two.

HIS return to sport came as the editor of Sportsworld, a magazine that raised the bar of sportswriting in India. He was a hands-off editor but colleagues from those days recall a man without airs, someone who was accessible day or night, a quick-witted raconteur 8212; who was not above the occasional game of tennis-ball cricket with his staff.

All along he preserved his reputation and it was only natural that when advertisements roped in celebrities, the Pataudis 8212; though out of the Page 3 circuit 8212; were ideal 8216;8216;happy family8217;8217; material.

Then it began unwinding, first in slo-mo as he became president of the clawless, spineless and so far pointless Indian Cricketers Players8217; Association 8212; the body formed during the players contract crisis in 2002. It was probably another case of helping out old friends. And the reel unspooled faster than you could say Wesley Hall.

At the end, one question remains: Why? And if he didn8217;t do it, why run? A man who faced up to every beamer thrown at him, on the field or off it, had he, at 65, run out of energy, taken one sprinted run too many? The flannels will remain spotless but those lily-white kurtas will have a large stain on them. Another idol bites the dust.