Boycott refused to believe that my father's vision was impaired; made me angry: Saif Ali Khan
Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan recently opened up about the attitude towards life and cricketing career of his father, the legendary Tiger Pataudi.
In an exclusive interview with Indranil Basu on Sportskeeda Cricket's Facebook page, Saif Ali Khan narrated various stories involving his father.
He recounted an incident where the selection panel asked Tiger to captain the team in only the first two Test matches against Clive Lloyd's fearsome West Indies team.
"In the 74/75 series, they asked him to captain against Lloyd's West Indies. They said, 'You captain the first two matches and we'll see how it goes. He said, 'I'm not interested in being put on trial at the end of my career. Either take me for all 5 Tests or don't take me at all'."
The B-town star spoke about his father's carefree attitude and how he viewed cricket merely as a sport. Saif Ali Khan stated that Tiger might not have been able to play the amount of cricket that is being played today.
"If he didn't want to tour, he would say he wasn't available. He said it was a game and he was losing interest in the game in the '60s because he thought there was too much cricket. He knew how we wanted to live. He was from a different era and I admire that he didn't take any s**t."
"He was a very down-to-earth person, he wasn't arrogant about his education or his background."
Saif Ali Khan narrates Geoffrey Boycott story
The 49-year-old then stated that legendary English batsman Geoffrey Boycott questioned whether Tiger Pataudi, whose vision in one eye was impaired due to an unfortunate accident, was actually at a disadvantage.
"Boycott, who I really looked up to, made me really angry one day. He said, 'I heard about your father, it's not possible to play Test cricket with one eye.' I asked him if he thinks my father is lying, to which he replied, 'Yes! I think he's making it up.'"
"I told my father that, and he got really annoyed. He said, 'Well, I was bloody good with two eyes. I'm just good with one. That was the only arrogant remark I ever heard him make."
Saif Ali Khan also mentioned that his mother, actress Sharmila Tagore, earned far more than his father due to the absence of money in cricket then. He even compared Bollywood and cricket, apart from narrating a touching story involving Tiger and former Test cricketer ML Jaisimha.