India, June 13 -- It was as salubrious a setting as could be imagined. A sunny Saturday in the green and pleasant south downs of England. At Winchester College, a public school founded in 1382, the institution honoured one of its celebrated old boys - Nawab Mansur Ali Khan of Pataudi, popularly known as Tiger, one of India's greatest cricket captains.

It was what is in the school's calendar Wykeham Day or a commemoration of the first cricket match played between Winchester and another ancient school Eton 200 years ago.

At a solemn ceremony in the school's cricket pavilion, Bill Holland, a member of the governing body, invited a sizeable audience to view a plaque in memory of Tiger, who still holds the record for the highest aggregate of...