Former India player Farokh Engineer was left disappointed by the ECB’s handling of renaming the India vs England Test series and its subsequent decision to introduce the winning captain’s medal named after the late Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. The ECB had instituted the Pataudi Trophy for the India-England series in 2007 until renaming it to the Anderson-Tendulkar trophy before the start of the ongoing five-match series.
“Well Tiger Pataudi was a great friend of mine. Great colleague of mine. We played a lot of Test cricket. Great heritage, great family. I was most happy when the trophy was named after him back in 2007,” Engineer told PTI.
“On one hand I was very disappointed that the Pataudi name was removed, I would love Tiger’s name to go on but instead powers that be decided with Anderson and Sachin who are legends of the game. It (introducing Pataudi medal) was obviously an afterthought, they should have announced it in the beginning that would have more credibility but at least they have done something. Common sense has prevailed and hope the Pataudi name always remains.”
“…the achievements of Tendulkar and Anderson can’t be argued against. There are two sides to the story. They have named the medal after Pataudis which is a very thoughtful thing. That must be a second choice to appease a lot of Pataudi supporters of which I am one but you can’t blame them for naming the trophy after Sachin and Anderson.”
“The whole issue is debatable but they have kept the name. I hope they invite Sharmila Tagore (Mansur’s wife) and his son Saif Ali Khan to present the medal. Last series they didn’t do that. Fingers were pointed at ECB for that. Hopefully they give them due credit,” he said.
Last week, Sunil Gavaskar had lamented the ECB’s decision to retain the Pataudi sentiment by rewarding the winning captain of the five-match series the Pataudi medal in honour of the royal Pataudi family. The former India captain questioned what would happen to the medal if the series ended in a draw.
“The announcement of the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy also said that respect would be given to the Pataudis by having a medallion for the captain of the team winning the series. Why the captain and what if the series is drawn? That’s why it would have been better to have had a Pataudi medal for the Man Of The Match for every Test, culminating in the Pataudi Trophy for the Player Of The Series. This way, the Pataudis will be remembered after every Test match played as well as after the series is finished in England. It would be interesting to hear what Indian cricket lovers feel on this subject,” Gavaskar wrote in his Mid-Day column.
