New Delhi:
Saif Ali Khan recently remembered his father, Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi – known as Tiger Pataudi – at the Tiger Pataudi Memorial Lecture 2026 in Kolkata. He spoke about when the legendary cricketer lost an eye, and described it as one of the biggest disasters and greatest comebacks in sporting history.
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- Saif Ali Khan said, “My father lost his eye just as he was maturing… I don’t want to go on because I can go on about many aspects of his cricket, but he lost his eye when he was on the cusp of achieving something really, really great. It is one of the biggest disasters in sporting history and one of the greatest comebacks.”
- The actor went on to say that his father did not initially know he had lost an eye; he thought it was a ‘shoulder accident.’
- “The doctors operated and said you have this piece of glass in your eye. You’ll lose 99% vision. At one point they said if you wear a contact lens, you’ll get 90% vision back, but it’ll take a long time to adjust. So he came back from university, he was in Delhi and he was called to play a match against some visiting English team,” Saif Ali Khan shared.
- He then elaborated that Pataudi wore the lens and felt fine, with one slight problem: he was seeing two balls a few inches apart.
- “He got 35 runs before lunch. Then took off his lens, covered his eye with a hat and then scored 70. And he was chosen to play for India. He said he had to change his game. He never talked about this as a handicap, never called it an adversity. Just something to adjust to, a fact. That’s what defined him: composure,” concluded Saif Ali Khan.
Saif Ali Khan On How Tiger Pataudi Was A Man Of Few Words
Saif recalled that Tiger Pataudi rarely spoke about his cricket milestones at home. He was a man of few words, but confident in his achievements.
“At home, he rarely spoke about achievements. He rarely spoke about anything. My mother would be exasperated at dinners and get-togethers with people less informed than him, who would be giving their opinion. He would say no one asked me, but he wouldn’t speak, because no one asked him. It was a very different brand of confidence,” said Saif.
Tiger Pataudi died in September 2011 in New Delhi. In terms of work, Saif Ali Khan was last seen in the Netflix film Kartavya.
ALSO READ | Saif Ali Khan Reveals Why Mom Sharmila Tagore Would Get ‘Exasperated’ At Parties With Tiger Pataudi
