The England and Wales Cricket (ECB) board’s decision to retire Pataudi Trophy and rename the forthcoming England vs India five-match Test match series as ‘Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy’ has received a mixed response worldwide. However, to keep the legacy of former India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi alive, it is learnt that the Indian board has now requested the ECB to name one of their awards for individual performance on Pataudi in the forthcoming Test match series.
The ECB had decided to retire Pataudi Trophy from this year onwards and has instead introduced ‘Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy’ in line with the modern trend of naming series after former players. In recent times, the ECB in association with Cricket West Indies renamed the Wisden Trophy established in 1963 and played between the two teams as Richards-Botham Trophy from 2020 in mark of respect to the two greats Viv Richards and Ian Botham. Similarly, the bilateral series between England and New Zealand takes place for Crowe-Thorpe Trophy which is named after Martin Crowe and Graham Thorpe. And since 1996, India have been playing the Test series against Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy which has now gained iconic status. And the decision to rename the Pataudi Trophy seem to be done on similar lines.
“It’s the ECB who decides on whom they want to name their series. The BCCI has no role in it as it’s their home series. We have requested them to name one of the post match Trophy on Pataudi and they will revert to us,” a BCCI official told The Indian Express.
The ECB had decided to move on from Pataudi’s name earlier this year without giving any official reason. However, they had informed Pataudi’s son, a well known actor Saif Ali Khan about it in April this year. India will be playing a five-match Test series against England which is scheduled to start from June 20th at Headingley, Leeds.
The Pataudi Trophy came into existence in 2007 to celebrate India’s 75th anniversary of their first Test in 1932. At 21, Pataudi had become the youngest Indian Test captain. His father Iftikar Ali Khan played for both England and India. Though ECB is yet to make their series name official, it is learnt that they have informed Anderson and Tendulkar about it and the duo is set to unveil the trophy before the first Test.
The English pacer Anderson retired from all forms of game in July 2024 where he took 704 wickets in 188 Tests. Tendulkar played 200 Tests and scored 15921 runs in a long illustrious career.
Talking to Zoom, Pataudi’s daughter, Soha said, “For us, it is disappointing that they are considering or have chosen to retire the Pataudi Trophy because I think that my father’s contribution to Indian cricket has been immense and in some form, I feel that it is important to recognise the contribution of the people in early years, especially somebody like him, who really inculcated the sense of Indian-ness and oneness and a sense of pride, winning the first overseas Test and things like that.” She added, “I think he should be remembered in some form, in some way and hopefully the BCCI will consider some other way of doing that, if not this.”