No disrespect to Anderson-Tendulkar, but renaming the Pataudi Trophy isn’t quite cric
No disrespect to Anderson-Tendulkar, but renaming the Pataudi Trophy isn’t quite cric
![[Image: image_-_2025-06-07T173537903_17492981798...179958.jpg]](https://www.hindustantimes.com/ht-img/img/2025/06/07/550x309/image_-_2025-06-07T173537903_1749298179805_1749298179958.jpg)
In 2007, ahead of the 75th anniversary of India’s entry into Test cricket (their first game was against England at Lord’s in June 1932), the Pataudi Trophy was instituted as the coveted prize for the winner of the series between the two teams on English soil. The Anthony S De Mello Trophy, named after one of the two founding fathers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, was the corresponding silverware for victors of Indo-England showdowns in India.
The naming of the trophy after the Pataudi father-son duo – Iftikhar Ali Khan played for both England and India, while ‘Tiger’ Mansur remains India’s youngest Test captain – was welcomed as thoughtful, sensitive, laudatory. There was more than mere tokenism to the nomenclature. The senior Pataudi symbolised the shared cricketing legacy between India and the country that ruled them for long. He stood up for what he believed in, and was therefore dropped after the second Test of the infamous Bodyline series of 1932-33 in Australia when he refused to field on the leg-side, in defiance of captain Douglas Jardine.
url
In 2007, ahead of the 75th anniversary of India’s entry into Test cricket (their first game was against England at Lord’s in June 1932), the Pataudi Trophy was instituted as the coveted prize for the winner of the series between the two teams on English soil. The Anthony S De Mello Trophy, named after one of the two founding fathers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, was the corresponding silverware for victors of Indo-England showdowns in India.
The naming of the trophy after the Pataudi father-son duo – Iftikhar Ali Khan played for both England and India, while ‘Tiger’ Mansur remains India’s youngest Test captain – was welcomed as thoughtful, sensitive, laudatory. There was more than mere tokenism to the nomenclature. The senior Pataudi symbolised the shared cricketing legacy between India and the country that ruled them for long. He stood up for what he believed in, and was therefore dropped after the second Test of the infamous Bodyline series of 1932-33 in Australia when he refused to field on the leg-side, in defiance of captain Douglas Jardine.
url
The Pataudi Trophy is a beautiful tribute to our shared cricketing history with England. Naming it after Nawab Iftikhar and Tiger Pataudi honours not just their legacy, but the spirit of Indian cricket – bold, proud, and principled. It’s more than a trophy; it’s a reminder of how far we’ve come.
