Many former cricketers of Team India have also tried their luck on the political pitch. The likes of Gautam Gambhir, Mohammad Azharuddin, Navjot Singh Sidhu, Kirti Azad and Chetan Chauhan contested elections and reached Parliament while the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Harbhajan Singh were sent to the Rajya Sabha without contesting elections. Many failed in this attempt. Yusuf Pathan and Manoj Tiwari are also in the race in the 2024 general elections.

A very interesting question is that which Indian Test cricketer contested the Parliament elections for the first time? Whether they won or lost – that is a different discussion. The popularity that cricketers enjoy today was not the case earlier and elections proved to be an unplayable googly for them. This record was made in independent India and Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi had contested the elections from Gurgaon seat in 1971 on the ticket of Vishal Haryana Party (now it is no more).

Another special thing is that he was an active cricketer at that time and played Tests even after the elections. In comparison, no one else in India even entered politics while being an active Test cricketer, leave alone contesting elections. Manoj Tiwari played first class cricket after becoming MLA – not Test. The story of Pataudi contesting elections at that time is very exciting.

When the year 1971 is mentioned in the context of cricket, 'big wins' immediately come to mind – in the same year, West Indies and England were not only defeated in Tests for the first time on their own soil, but also won the series. Here in the country, this year was full of discussion about politics and war. Since the end of 1969, many changes were taking place on the political stage in the country. There was only one thing – this is the era of youth representation. This is what happened in cricket and in the cold days of December in 1970, Vijay Merchant, one of India's top batsmen of his time and the chairman of the selection committee at that time, removed Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi as the captain with his casting vote and Ajit Wadekar was appointed as the captain. Became the new captain of India for the West Indies tour. As soon as Pataudi lost his captaincy – just a few hours later, he announced that he was not available for the West Indies tour. This was exaggerated in the media in such a way that he did not want to play under the captaincy of Wadekar. Merchant's casting vote or Pataudi's refusal – all are different stories in themselves.

Well, with this decision, Pataudi got free time. Indian cricket books do not mention another major incident of those days. By this time, winds of change were blowing across the country on a large scale. These were those years when the government took two big decisions which changed the face of the country. The first was the nationalization of some banks and the second was the abolition of the privy purse of the kings and emperors who were still in discussion in the country. This Privy Purse decision also affected Pataudi and in a single night he reduced from Nawab of Pataudi to a common man. That is why in the home series against Australia in 1969-70, his name was written as Mansoor Ali Khan in the score card.

In this way, Pataudi faced not one but two big shocks during that period. Everyone knows that the Pataudi family had very good relations with the family of Pandit Nehru, the first Prime Minister of the country, which continued till the next generation, but the newspaper reports of that time say that Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was asked to abolish the privy purse of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. They did not like the decision but remained silent. After that, when Merchant's vote took away the captaincy from him, he became completely relieved. It is written everywhere that the young Nawab of Pataudi chose the democratic way to protest against the decision to abolish the Privy Purse and contested the Lok Sabha elections to seek a mandate against the 'breaking of trust'. The truth is that a local party (Vishal Haryana Party) prepared him for the elections. In his election discussions, he used to mention the abolition of Privy Purse, although according to records, he was getting only Rs 48 thousand annually for the small princely state of Pataudi. Still, from a common man's point of view, this was also a huge amount, but he was opposing the government's decision on principle.

Pataudi knew cricket, not politics. Even though the people of Gurgaon were familiar with the Pataudi state, competition on the political stage is a different thing. Today this is not mentioned anywhere but the truth is that Pataudi faced opposition in the elections because of cricket – Lala Amarnath was ready to contest against him. Lala ji also took part in some election discussions but he soon realized that this was not his 'pitch' to play and he officially withdrew his name in support of the Congress candidate.

On this seat, Pataudi was in direct competition with Congress's evergreen candidate Chaudhary Tayyab Hussain. The unique record in his name is that he contested and won the Parliament and Legislative Assembly elections from different states. He was a minister in the government in three different states, which is a surprising achievement in Indian politics. In this way, Pataudi took the challenge lightly and the result was that in that general election of 1971, Pataudi's glamor was of no use and he got less than 5 percent votes (22979). Chaudhary Saheb got 199333 votes (about 50 percent) but the surprising thing was that an independent candidate K Narendra also got more votes than Pataudi – 131391 (about 33 percent). The newspapers of that time say that if Pataudi had taken the Congress ticket in the 1971 elections by taking advantage of his relationship with the Nehru-Gandhi family, he would not have lost, but he had contested the elections in protest against their policy. Even when Lala Amarnath withdrew from the elections, he also told the voters (without taking names) not to fall prey to glamor and vote for Congress only.

This is how a Test cricketer could not debut in Parliament in 1971. In such a situation, Pataudi's disappointment increased to three in those years. A great scholar then read his horoscope and said that 'Saturn's Mahadasha' was going on on him but he himself also admitted that during this period, Pataudi also hit a jackpot – his relationship with the top film star of that time, Sharmila Tagore. been married. Pataudi was ready to play cricket after losing the election.