Hyderabad, Oct. 8 -- The friendship between the well-known writer Jeffrey Archer and former India captain, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, was one of those unusual relationships that began in the privileged surroundings of Oxford and survived for nearly half a century. Archer, who died on October 5, aged 86, had a deep affection for his old Oxford friend till his last breath.

Their association began in the early 1960s when the young Nawab of Pataudi was at Oxford. Archer later recalled that he first met Pataudi through mutual friends and was immediately struck not only by his cricketing talent but by his likeable personality. Archer remembered that Pataudi, who had two nicknames - Pat and Tiger - had an unusual ability to treat everybody as an ...