Nawab of Pataudi, remains one of India's greatest ever captains. He assumed the role of captaincy when he was just 21 and led in 40 of the 46 tests that he played in. It was a remarkable achievement for someone who had lost vision in his right eye after his involvement in a car crash. Under his captaincy, India achieved their first overseas Test victory against New Zealand in 1967. India went on to win the series 3-1 and he will be forever remembered as the man who led India to their first away series victory in tests. Pataudi was the Wisden Cricketer of the Year that year.

Under Pataudi, India began to shed its losers' tag and slowly emerged out of its conservative mindset. Pataudi believed that India needed to play to its strengths and thus believed in attacking with 4 spinners. Pataudi scored 2793 runs at an average of 35 and made six centuries, the biggest of which was an unbeaten 203 against England in Delhi in 1964.

Though his test average was just 34, he was a bold and aggressive batsman, unfraid to play his shots. His aggressive mindset filtered into his captaincy as well as he won 9 of the 40 tests he captained in.

His 75, scored on one leg with one eye, against Australia in Melbourne in 1967-68 as his finest innings. He retired from cricket in 1975 after West Indies' tour of India.

After his retirement, he was a match referee from 1993 and 1996, officiating in two Tests and ten ODIs. He was also the editor of Sportsworld, the now defunct cricket magazine, and a television commentator in the 1980s, but never took up an active role in Cricket administration.

As a mark of respect and honor for his family's contribution to Anglo-Indian cricket, test series between India and England have been named the Pataudi Trophy since 2007.

He was also a part of the IPL governing council from 2007 along with Sunny Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, but refused to continue from October 2010 after being disappointed at the changes that were made.

Pataudi was the only member of the governing council who admitted that there were wrongdoings in the way the league functioned and in fact, he went on to sue the BCCI for non-payment of dues earlier this year.

In 1964, Pataudi was bestowed the Arjuna Award before being honoured with the Padma Shri in 1967.

A star not just on field, but off it too, Pataudi married the then reigning queen of Indian cinema Sharmila Tagore in 1969 and the glamorous couple had three children -- Saif Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan and Saba Ali Khan.

He had a brush with controversy too when he was arrested for poaching the endangered Blackbuck in 2005.

He passed away at the age of 70 in a Delhi hospital. He was suffering from interstitial lung disease.

By Srivathsa