Sunil Gavaskar, a former Indian cricket player, has voiced his thoughts about the Pataudi Trophy being discontinued starting with the next series. India and England’s bilateral red-ball series in England will no longer be referred to by the same name. This follows a number of rumors that said the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) intended to remove the title from the next series between the two teams, which was set to start on June 20 of this year.
The alleged choice was deemed “disturbing” by Gavaskar. Additionally, he said that the call seriously diminishes the contributions that Mansoor and Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi have made to Indian and English cricket.
“The recent news that the ECB is going to retire the Pataudi Trophy, given to the winners of the Test series between England and India in England, is disturbing indeed. This is the first time one has heard of a trophy named after individual players being retired, though the decision is entirely the ECB’s, and the BCCI may well have been informed. It shows a total lack of sensitivity to the contribution made by the Pataudis to cricket in both England and India,” stated Gavaskar, as quoted in his column for Sportstar.
Hope that any other Indian cricketer will have the smarts to decline: Sunil Gavaskar
The former Indian cricket player, who played five matches for his country with Tiger, also talked about two key reasons why he believed other Indian players would turn down the ECB’s offer to have their names attached to the series, should the governing body ever approach them.
“There may well be a new trophy named after more recent players, and here’s hoping that if an Indian player has been approached, he will have the good sense to politely decline — not only out of respect for two former Indian captains but also to avoid the same fate of having a trophy named after him retired after he is gone. The ECB is fully entitled to name the trophy after one of their own players, but I, along with loads of Indian cricket supporters, fervently hope that any other Indian cricketer will have the smarts to decline, lest history repeats itself as it has with the Pataudi Trophy,” added Gavaskar.
India has only triumphed once in the five Pataudi Trophy series that have been played thus far. England dominated the 2011; 2014; and 2018 series. The most recent occurred in 2022, when both teams won two games apiece in a five-match series that ended in a draw.
