Robin Waters, the former Oxford University, Ireland, Bengal (Ranji Trophy) and Sussex player, in whose car India’s late Mansur Ali Khan (MAK) Pataudi met with an accident some 50 years ago, offered mass for the departed soul on Monday morning.
Speaking over the telephone from his Dublin home (where he has been living for almost 40 years now) on late Sunday night, Waters said, “I live very close to the Catholic Church here and on Monday at 10 in the morning, I shall visit the church and offer mass for Pataudi. Pataudi has died in a state of grace, he is not truly “dead”; he is our beloved in Heaven. Masses for the dead have infinite value.”
Seventy-four-year-old Robin Waters was born in India. “My mother was Irish and father English, he was a Golf Club captain in Calcutta where I was born. I was educated in England.”
“Pataudi was my captain at the Oxford University. I consider Pataudi a better batsman than Don Bradman because LBW rules were easier at the time when Bradman was playing. The rules were changed thereafter. Once Pataudi scored 50 runs off 25 balls. The Oxford captain that year was Tiger, the Nawab of Pataudi who had destroyed county attacks with a brilliance which suggested that a very great player had arrived. He became a very good Test batsman, (and the central figure in a Jeffrey Archer short story!) but the genius was lost.”
Recalling the car accident, Waters said, “When I was driving the car, a bigger car swerved and hit our car. It was no fault of mine. The driver of the other car was responsible for the accident. Pataudi was bleeding and for a while was made to rest at Queen Victoria statue nearby. I remember the words ‘Empress of India’ were written on the statue. I think Pataudi was a king of India. He took the tragedy bravely.”
“Pataudi returned to India after the accident and I returned to Ireland. There was no communication between us. But, yes, once he came with the Indian team to Ireland and knowing I live in Dublin, invited me to a team dinner. We chatted for long. Pataudi never complained about the incident. He also asked me to forget about the accident as it had just happened and it was in his destiny to lose the eye. Pataudi was a great humble man. He became a stronger captain after the accident.”
Robin Waters also remembered the names of Pataudi’s family members and knew that Saif, Pataudi’s son, is an actor in India.