Gundappa Vishwanath surely belongs to the list.
Tiger Pataudi always seems rated quite highly compared to his very ordinary stats; I don't know if it is justified or not.
Pataudi was injured in an accident that also involved the highly gifted Collie Smith (who died in that accident) and Garfield Sobers. One has seen accounts where Pataudi is refered to being as gifted as young batsman as the other two. Very high praise indeed.
Pataudi lost his right eye (most of the vision in it) in that accident. The fact that he came back to play international sport is a near miracle for any ball 7 bat/racket game. Most people who saw him as a youngster agree that but for his terrible handicap he would have been an all time great.
Pataudi has mentioned, in talking of how the accident affected him by telling that he could not light a cigarette properly either missing the end or lighting it in the middle. The two eyes give us the perspective of distance which is completely lost with one eye.
His partial but badly damaged vision in the right eye made it very difficult when he was trying to come back. He has mentioned that he would see two balls when batting and with trial and error he found that the inner ball (the image which his left eye was projecting) was the one to play. Then he decided to pull his cap over his right eye as keeping one eye closed while batting wasn't easy. He ruled out wearing an eye patch because he did not like it !
It still left the problem of judging how far the ball was from him during its flight from bowlers hand towards him. That this is a huge handicap is so obvious from seeing what a potent weapon a slower delivery is. His average and his test centuries are a huge achievement in the context of his injury.
By the way, he was one of the greatest fielders at covers/cover point the world has ever seen.
There was a fielding exhibition organised at Lord's in the sixties which was to feature both Pataudi an Colin Bland. Pataudi could not finally make it due to some other engagements. Bland thrilled the crowds by knocking down the six stumps at the two ends of the wicket with just seven fast and furious throws from the boundary. The one ball that missed did not miss by more than a few inches.
The fact that Pataudi was thought to be good enough to have a competition between him and the remarkable Bland is testimony to his great caliber.
By the way, Bland's exhibition that day gives a lie to the impression that good fielders are something very recent. What has happened, however, is that bad fielders are not tolerated as they were then if they were good in their other speciality so overall standards have improved. Plus, the diving and sliding to save boundaries is a new addition.
