Farokh Engineer, a former Indian cricketer, expressed unhappiness with the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) handling of the renaming of the England-India Test series and the introduction of a new winner’s medal named after the late Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi.
The Pataudi Trophy was established for the India-England Test series in 2007, however prior to the current five-match series,
The ECB renamed it the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, which elicited mixed emotions from the cricketing community.
“Tiger Pataudi was a great friend of mine.” Excellent coworker of mine. We played a lot of test cricket. Great heritage and family. I was overjoyed when the award was named after him back in 2007,” Engineer remarked.
“On the one hand, I was sad that the Pataudi name was deleted; I would have preferred Tiger’s name to remain, but the powers that be settled on Anderson and Sachin, who are game icons. It (introducing the Pataudi award) was definitely an afterthought; they should have announced it from the start to gain credibility, but at the very least they did something. “Common sense has prevailed, and I hope the Pataudi name will endure,” Engineer added.
Engineer acknowledged that naming the medal after Sachin Tendulkar and James Anderson is justified but it remains a debatable decision. He expressed hope that the Pataudi family, including Sharmila Tagore and Saif Ali Khan, would be invited to present the medal at this time.
“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,” Engineer said.
“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 the ECB for that. Hopefully they give them due credit,” he concluded.
India
