Pataudi absorbed pressure like no other: Laxman

He may be famous for his leadership skills and elegant batting but what the whole world may not know is that no batsman in the world has absorbed more pressure than cricket legend Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi.

This lesser known fact was brought before the world Wednesday by another Indian batting great V.V.S. Laxman while delivering the Pataudi memorial lecture here.

"Recently, I read an article which said that in the history of Test cricket (with a minimum of 40 Tests being the basic criteria), no batsman in the world has absorbed more pressure - of falling wickets - than Tiger Pataudi did in his career.

"Now, while you associate him with grace, with elegance, style and charisma, this revelation by the Impact Index team threw light on another, lesser known facet of Tiger Pataudi's personality of handling pressure," Laxman said in his address.

"But it didn't surprise me at all because when he could absorb the pressure of life's greatest challenge as a cricketer and continue unaffected, would the pressure of a few wickets falling around him ever affect him," he said.

Paying rich tributes to his batting and captaincy skills, Laxman also hailed 'Tiger' for being one of India's finest fielders.

"He was not only an accomplished batsman, but also ended his career as one of India's finest fielders, and set extremely high standards as a captain, developing a core group of brilliant close-in fielders.

"Everything about him, I was told, was about a casual elegance. He would patrol the covers, seemingly disinterested, nawaabi almost, before pouncing on the ball like a tiger and accurately hitting the stumps," Laxman said, describing Pataudi as visionary and nawab of Hyderabad.