- June 16, 2025
The heritage of Test cricket is a stunning example of the game being built to transcend time, leave great legacies, and create rivalries that last generations. But what does it mean when a great legacy is in danger of being lost? That’s what almost happened with the Pataudi Trophy – it represented the series of Tests played between England and India in England for the past several decades. Just when the series was about to get a clever name: the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, Tendulkar reminded us in a gentle but vital voice to remember Pataudi.
More Than Just a Label: The Story Behind a Trophy’s Name
Let us go back. The Pataudi Trophy began in 2007 as a memorial to Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi – India’s youngest Test Captain and a true Lion Heart, even after losing vision in one eye. He was more than just numbers on a page – he changed the way Indian teams viewed overseas Test cricket.
In 2025, the ECB announced a change: from the Pataudi Trophy to the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, to supposedly honour two modern greats of the sport. Not too shabby, right? Wrong, it is not simply for honour. We have seen greats who have been best honour by allowing others to take their view on their place in history. And with that masterstroke, Sachin Tendulkar sealed the story like only a legend could.
More Than Sentiment: Why Gavaskar and Fans Backed Sachin
It wasn’t just cricket fans who were rolling their eyes, and former Indian Test cricket captain Sunil Gavaskar, rarely one to pull punches, called the decision “disturbing” in his column, questioning how a trophy recognizing contributions from Indian and English cricket royalty could simply be retired.
And he wasn’t wrong.
The Pataudi name has its own curious cricketing connection across the countries. The symbolism goes much deeper than this; indeed, it is heritage with a conceptualization that exists outside of statistics and scorecards.
The ECB did a swift U-turn after Tendulkar’s timely move and the crowd’s voice, balancing history by naming the series after legends but dressing the medal in Pataudi’s legacy. It is a compromise, sure – but it still maintains the essence of the original.
A Tradition Worth Protecting
It’s not just about cricket politics—it’s about how we honour greatness. When we’re quick to honour the greats of modernity, we run the risk of forgetting the greats of history. Although the Pataudi Trophy doesn’t have the unrivaled legacy of the Ashes in 150 years, it has existed for a mere 10 years yet has history, power, and emotional value to some extent.
This is also a timely reminder for fans and boards: let’s not pretend that cricketing history is like a playlist that we can keep remixing. We can honour Anderson and Tendulkar in their due way, but this does not have to mean dishonoring what has gone before. Why not a Pataudi–Anderson–Tendulkar Trophy? A far more inclusive and elegantly respectful nod to the past, present, and future.
Sachin Tendulkar’s footnote in defense of the Pataudi name is not a mere comment or gesture; it is a comment of respect and heritage and continuity in a sport where things happen at starts and stops; things like this serve to give us something that is tactile about the people that have gone before.
So, I will posit this: cricket is a sport of glorious uncertainties; would it be too unreasonable a request of its past that we can have some certainties? Would you rather watch a new name shine in the marquee or see legacies get celebrated as they should? Leave your comments below – because this isn’t just about a name, it’s about what we choose to remember.
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