The quintessential queen of celluloid, Sharmila Tagore, on Saturday said that her actor son, Saif Ali Khan, did not have the talent to play cricket. She was speaking on the occasion of the release of a new book on Tiger Pataudi titled Pataudi: Nawab of Cricket at the Kolkata Literary Meet at Milan Mela.
She unveiled the book with former Indian captain, Saurav Ganguly. The book has a foreword written by her. “A lot of people used to pinch Saif’s cheeks and ask what do you want to be little boy? They wanted to know whether he wanted to be a cricketer or an actor. He used to reply that he wanted to be a player. But I think he didn’t have the talent to be a cricketer,” she added.
On this occasion, Ms Tagore also shared some personal anecdotes. She recalled that once she had received a kick on her foot below the table from her late cricketer husband. “Don’t you dare talk about cricket when you don’t know about cricket. It is late cut and not leg cut,” Tiger Pataudi had told her when she mixed up the late cut with leg cut.
She also confessed that she got to know much about Tiger Pataudi through letters and tributes after his death. Sharing the stage with her, Saurav Ganguly said that writing a biography would never be his cup of tea. “There’s no point writing a book where I can’t write everything. A biography has to be the reflection of everything. So if you can’t speak the truth then you shouldn’t write a book or a biography.”
When asked whether he would like to be the state’s sports ambassador or not, he repiled,”You have to make the request to Didi.”