Poonam Nath

Veteran actress Sharmila Tagore ‘hurt’ after BCCI mulls over retiring Pataudi trophy

Digital Desk: India's five-Test series in England, which begins on June 20, will not be played for the Pataudi Trophy. The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has contacted Saif Ali Khan, the actor son of the late India captain Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, about retiring the trophy.

The decision to take down her husband's name, however, hurt veteran actress Sharmila Tagore, a beloved figure in Indian cinema.

"I haven't heard from them, but the ECB has sent a letter to Saif that they are retiring the trophy," Sharmila told the HT. "If the BCCI wants to or does not want to remember Tiger's legacy, it is for them to decide."

The decision has yet to be made official. "We don't have any further details on the story at the moment," an ECB spokesperson said on Tuesday. BCCI authorities were not available for further remark.

Since 2007, India's Test series in England has been played for the Pataudi Trophy, after the Marylebone Cricket Club, the guardians of cricket's laws based at Lord's Ground, introduced the concept to mark the 75th anniversary of the first India-England Test match in 1932. Although the suggestion did not come from the BCCI or ECB.

The trophy, having a disturbed past, also holds the absence of the two boards' official stamp, which infuriated the Pataudi family. Sharmila requested in a letter to N. Srinivasan, the BCCI president at the time, in November 2012, that her late husband's name be added to the trophy for the India-England Tests played at home.

Later, the BCCI acknowledged its incapacity, stating that the trophy for the home Test matches was already named in honor of its first secretary, Anthony De Mello.