Bishan Singh Bedi: A connoisseur’s delight, man of uncompromising principles, IPL cynic, proponent of better pay for cricketers | Cricket News

Bishan Singh Bedi the bowler and Bishan Singh Bedi the person were two dinct entities, and need to be analysed separately.While the left-arm par excellence was full of guile, variety and deception – foxing the best batsmen of his time – and retiring as the highest wicket-taker in Tests for India, his straightforwardness in matters of cricket adminration, and life in general, took few prisoners.
Who else would dare to declare a Test innings as India captain in the West Indies in protest of what he believed to be intimidatory bowling after several of his teammates had been put in hospital, effectively losing the game? Or forfeit an ODI in Pakan against biased umpiring? Or charge England left-arm pacer John Lever of using Vaseline to swing the ball during a tour of India? Or become a big proponent of a better pay structure for cricketers, when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had full sway over the players?

His outspokenness continued after his playing days, frequently taking on the Delhi and Drict Cricket Association (DDCA) over various matters of omission and commission, including renaming the Feroze Shah Kotla as the Arun Jaitley Stadium. He even wrote to DDCA asking for his name to be removed from one of the stands.
It was such a big move as Bedi was the biggest reason Delhi became a force to be reckoned with in domestic cricket, providing stiff competition to Bombay, the perennial Ranji Trophy champions through the 1960s and 70s. During the second half of the 1970s and the next decade, whenever these two sides met – invariably in the semifinals or final – there used to be a dinct edge to the contests, with the quality of cricket on show almost being of Test standard. Most of the players from the national capital, who went on to play for the country, consider Bedi as their mentor.
Bedi never considered Muttiah Muralitharan’s bowling action as legal, despite the Sri Lankan off-spinner scalping 800 victims in Tests.
“If Murali doesn’t chuck, then show me how to bowl,” he once famously said.
Speaking his mind came naturally to the ‘Sardar of Spin’, who passed away on Monday, but his prowess as a tweaker was also something else. Such was his control of the ball that it often seemed like he had it on a string and could change the trajectory and length as he desired. Batsmen would often step out or go for a big shot to a generously-flighted delivery, only to find that the ball was not where they expected it to be.

Or they would go back to a ball they expected would provide them the width or length to play an attacking shot, only for the delivery to slide in to hit the pads or the stumps.
Man of principle
His adherence to principles he held dear was strict to the point of stubbornness. He never compromised on flight, even when his captains would have liked a more conservative approach, citing the match situation. It owed much to his aggressive approach in playing the game, always looking for wickets, a trait he showcased throughout his 22-Test stint as India captain.
The Indian spin quartet of Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan may not have won that many matches for India if one solely uses the scorecard as the yardstick. But they captured the imagination of the cricket world, and gave a sense of pride to a young nation trying to excel at a colonial sport.
The very best in the hory of the game – such as Donald Bradman and Garfield Sobers – have been effusive in their praise about Bedi’s sublime skills.

It was a connoisseur’s delight – how he followed up his languid run-up (or was it amble) to the stumps with an ingenious wizardry of flight, loop, spin and pace without any discernible change of action. And his bowling was full of confidence and generosity. If a batsman was quick-footed or good enough to hit him for a six, Bedi would be the first to applaud the shot.
Bedi was a hard taskmaster, which could be a reason why his tenure as India head coach didn’t last long. On a tour of New Zealand in 1990, he allegedly threatened to throw the whole team in the sea after losing a relatively low-scoring tri-series ODI to Australia.

And he was never a fan of the Indian Premier League – arguably the biggest annual event in the cricketing calendar. The man who believed in old-school values “just did not like players being treated like horses being sold to the highest bidder”.Most Read
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His loyalty to such values may have left him out of the BCCI ambit that allows most of the retired cricketers to earn a good living through lucrative commentary assignments or roles in adminration. But that never seemed to bother Bedi. He never hesitated from calling a spade a spade, even if it required targeting the Indian team.
For him, cricket was a way of life to be cherished, which should not be treated in a parochial or partisan manner.
He was one of the last of a special breed. They don’t make them like him any more.