Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi spent his entire career on the strength of just one eye.Image Credit source: Getty Images
For the last few years, India has been continuously touring Ireland, where it plays T20 series with the host team. This is going to happen once again. There will be a 2 T20 match series between India and Ireland on 26 and 28 June in Ireland’s capital, Belfast. There is a lot of discussion going on about the players playing in this series but today let us tell you about two such players who were injured in a car accident in which an Indian legend lost his eye. This was Indian legend Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and the other was Robin Waters of Ireland.
The history of cricket between India and Ireland may not be very old, but cricketers from these two countries playing with or against each other at different places is not new. There have even been some players who have played for both the countries. Pataudi and Waters are two players who used to play for the same team while living in England and it was here that the incident about which we are telling you took place.
This is from July 1961. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi and Robin Waters of Ireland used to play in county cricket for the team of Oxford University of England. During one such season, Robin Waters and Pataudi were riding in the same car in East Essex, England. This car belonged to Waters and he was driving it. During this time he collided with a vehicle. The collision was so severe that the windshield (front glass) of the car broke and a piece of it entered Pataudi’s right eye.
This incident spread panic and Pataudi was immediately taken to the hospital. Reports at that time suggest that Dr. David Claire Roberts had then performed Pataudi’s eye surgery and the Indian cricketer had thanked him for it. However, his right eye had become useless due to this accident. This caused him to see double images, which became a cause of trouble.
Let us tell you that till that time Pataudi had not even made his debut for the Indian team. At that time it seemed that his career would end here but Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was not called ‘Tiger Pataudi’ just like that. Within the next 5 months, in December 1961, he made his Test debut for the Indian team and scored a century in the fifth Test itself. Within the next 2-3 months, at the age of just 21 years and 77 days, he became the youngest captain in cricket history.
After this, Pataudi remained a part of the Indian Test team till 1975 but Robin Waters could never reach international cricket. He played first class cricket while living in England and then for some time in India for the Bengal cricket team. But till that time Ireland cricket had not got the status of international team. He played some matches for Ireland but these were not matches of international status. Wicketkeeper-batsman Waters scored 929 runs in his career of 38 first class matches, while taking 55 wickets behind the wicket.
