The England Board decides to retire the Pataudi Trophy

Reports say that the BCCI has stepped in after the England Board decided on the same.

Earlier, in 2007, the bilateral contests between India and England played in England were named the Pataudi Trophy. The upcoming India vs England Test series, which begins in Leeds on June 20, will be played for the Tendulkar-Anderson Trophy. The England Board decided to retire the Pataudi Trophy; thus, the BCCI has stepped into the matter.

The England Board has decided to retire the Pataudi Trophy.

In 2007, the Pataudi Trophy was first awarded to commemorate 75 years of the first India vs England Test. The Test series played between India and England in India is called the Anthony de Mello Trophy, named after a former president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Not happy with the decision, the BCCI, as per a report, has ‘requested’ the England and Wales Cricket Board to name one of the post-match trophies on Pataudi. A BCCI official told a leading news portal, “It’s the ECB who decides on whom they want to name their series. The BCCI has no role in it, as it’s their home series. We have requested them to name one of the post match Trophy on Pataudi and they will revert to us.”

Sunil Gavaskar had also blasted the England Board for the decision.

Earlier, Sunil Gavaskar had also blasted the England Board for its decision to ‘retire’ the Pataudi Trophy. He wrote in a column for Sportstar, “The recent news that the ECB is going to retire the Pataudi Trophy, given to the winners of the Test series between England and India in England, is disturbing indeed. This is the first time one has heard of a trophy named after individual players being retired, though the decision is entirely the ECB’s, and the BCCI may well have been informed. It shows a total lack of sensitivity to the contribution made by the Pataudis to cricket in both England and India.”

Gavaskar continued, “There may well be a new trophy named after more recent players, and here’s hoping that if an Indian player has been approached, he will have the good sense to politely decline – not only out of respect for two former India captains but also to avoid the same fate of having a trophy named after him retired after he is gone. The ECB is fully entitled to name the trophy after one of their own players, but I, along with loads of Indian cricket supporters, fervently hope that any other Indian cricketer will have the smarts to decline, lest history repeats itself as it has with the Pataudi Trophy.”