Tiger Pataudi's legacy extends beyond cricket statistics and records; to this day, he is often revered as one of India's most graceful sporting icons. He brought charm, dignity, and perhaps most importantly, a long-lost self-belief to Indian cricket. Yet in recent months, his legacy has been thrust into public discourse again, not for his on-field brilliance, but due to the raging controversy surrounding the proposed renaming of the Pataudi Trophy, currently contested between India and England.

The debate has reignited reflection on Pataudi’s significance, reminding many why his name on the silverware was never just about heritage, but about resilience, revolution, and unmatched grace.

"Tiger Pataudi's exploits on the cricket field and his contribution to the game have been appropriately analysed, extolled and documented: everyone agrees that quite apart from mere statistics, he brought to the game a certain charm, a dignity, and to Indian cricket itself a self-belief sorely lacking hitherto. Adding to his mystique was the unfortunate mishap that occurred in the infancy of his prime while he was mercilessly pulverising opposing bowlers. It would seem that God, in doing a review of his largesse to mankind, felt that he may have been a trifle over-generous in Tiger's case and sensing that this could disrupt a level playing field, decided to deprive him the benefit of one eye. Anyway, back among mortals, Tiger still excelled, proving to the world that any disability is only as daunting as we make it out to be," reads a chapter in the book titled Pataudi: The Nawab of Cricket.

"The life-altering incident occurred in 1961. Recounting the moment, a former teammate recalled, "We were returning to our hotel after a hard day's play against Sussex at Hove; Tiger decided at the very last moment to get out of the team van and travel with our wicketkeeper, Robin Waters, whose little car had a collision with an oncoming vehicle in a cut in the road. There was a loud sound and when we rushed to the site, we found Tiger lying on the ground by the car. He did not appear in any great discomfort, rubbed his eyes a bit and proceeded back to the hotel. It was only the next morning that he started to feel the hurt and the doctor pronounced that a glass splinter had got lodged in his eye and required to be surgically removed. Alas, it turned out to be more serious than anybody had initially thought and a brilliant career was temporarily thwarted," recalled Abbas Ali Baig.

The seemingly minor accident changed the course of his life. "And then, of course, the apparently innocuous accident happened, on the sea front at Hove; feeling no pain in his head, he had no idea that a sliver of glass had entered his right eye. The operation left him with 90 per cent sight overall; he required a contact lens in the bad eye. One problem was that he saw two of everything."

Still, Pataudi returned to cricket, defying logic and expectation.

"He says it took him five years to get used to batting with what would seem to be a huge impediment, by which time he had been captain of India for four years."

His resilience didn't go unnoticed by the next generation. In 2001, after Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Saba Karim suffered a similar eye injury during an Asia Cup match in Dhaka, it was Pataudi who came quietly to offer support.

"But there is another story about this. In 2001, Saba Karim, a wicketkeeper-batsman who played thirty-five times for India, was hit in the right eye whilst keeping to Anil Kumble during an Asia Cup match in Dhaka. Tiger visited him in hospital, 'making his presence felt without shouting from the rooftops' as Karim put it. Tiger helped the younger man to accept fate and move on; to make those adjustments that make life worth living. Saba asked him how long it took him to recover. 'Saba,' he said, 'I never recovered.' But Tiger made a life, including, of course, a major cricketing life, for himself, despite the accident," concluded former England cricketer Mike Brearly.

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