After a protracted battle with sickness, the legendary Indian cricket player Bishan Singh Bedi passed away at age of 77.
He had been through a few operations in the previous several years due to the age-related ailments that he was facing.
Bedi is widely recognized as one of the world’s best ever spin bowlers. During his 67 career Tests, he captained India 22 times and finished with 266 wickets.
In 1966, he made his debut in a test match against West Indies, and in 1979, he played his last test match against England at The Oval.
Bedi concluded his career with 1,560 first-class wickets, the most by any Indian bowler. He also played county cricket in England for the Northamptonshire team.
Bedi was an essential member of India’s legendary quartet of world-class spin bowlers in the 1960s and 1970s, which also included Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar, and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. This legendary quartet dominated the spin bowling globe. In 2021, readers of Sport voted Bedi into their all-time XI of the best India players to ever play the test match format.
Bedi was born in Amritsar, which is located in the state of Punjab in India. He began playing cricket when he was still in school. After reaching the age of 20, he was selected to play for India in a test match, making him the 113th player to do so.
His best bowling performance came in 1969, when he took seven wickets for 98 runs against Australia in a Test match that India lost in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta). This was the culmination of a career that spanned 12 years.
Bedi was a pleasure for spin bowling purists to watch, especially when he wore his signature pink or brilliant blue turban. Bowling was something that came easily to him; his run-up was relaxed, and his movement was smooth. A cricket writer gave the left-arm spinner a glowing review, saying that he was “stealthy, silent, as well as deadly, a master of deception who conjured variations in flight, loop, spin, as well as pace without any perceptible change in action.”
According to Ramachandra Guha, a historian and author of the book A Corner of a Foreign Field, a book on Indian cricket, “Bedi flighted the ball higher than any bowler in international cricket.” If he could challenge quick-footed batsmen in this manner, it was only because his command was so complete that he would make the ball descend far quicker than it went up, Guha wrote. Guha is the author of the book.
Bedi was reputedly stated to have so much variation that he could “bowl six different deliveries in an over” by former India wicketkeeper Syed Kirmani, who played 88 Tests for India.
Bedi “took the weight off the ball nicely,” according to Sir Garry Sobers, a legend of West Indies cricket and one of the best all-rounders the game has ever seen. His bowling was described as “beautiful” by Mike Brearley, one of England’s most successful leaders.
“Bedi was a real study for the connoisseur and among the finest bowlers of his type,” said the legendary Australian cricketer Sir Donald Bradman, who is usually regarded as the game’s best batter of all time.
Bedi was also an uncommon example of an outspoken cricketer, and he frequently became involved in controversial situations.
In 1976, he protested the intimidating bowling of the hosts by declaring the second innings of India’s match against Clive Lloyd’s West Indies to be over at 97-5. The match took place in Kingston, Jamaica.
Bedi stated that a declaration could not be made since there were no players who were physically capable of coming out to bat and three of India’s batsmen had been knocked out of the game by fast bowlers from the West Indies. The final score was West Indies 10, Opposition 0.
During a tour of India in 1977, he accused England’s left-arm fast bowler John Lever of using vaseline to get ball to swing while he was playing for England. The following year, he refused to play against Pakistan and claimed that the umpires were biased against his team.
After India’s team was defeated by Australia in 1990, he allegedly made the threat to throw them all into the ocean in his capacity as the national coach. In 2002, he accused the Sri Lankan spin legend Muttiah Muralitharan of throwing, which was a startling attack that he launched on Muralitharan.
“If Murali doesn’t chuck, then show me how to bowl,” Bedi stated in an interview that was published in Wisden Cricket Asia.
Back in 1978, he turned down a big contract offer from Kerry Packer to play in the World Series Cricket, a rebel competition in Australia. Years later, he revealed that Packer’s agent had tried to make substantial offers to him three separate times.
Decades later, he criticized the player auctions that took place in the Indian Premier League, stating that he “just did not like players being treated like horses and being sold to the highest bidder.”
In order to register his objection to the installation of a statue honoring a former member of the BJP who served as a politician in Delhi, he requested that his name be removed from a stand at the city’s primary cricket stadium. He once made an unauthorized appearance on a television program in which he lobbied for increased match fees for his side. “If speaking one’s mind is a crime, then I am guilty several times over,” he stated on occasion.
Bedi was a vivacious and highly sociable individual who also had a vivid personality. His daughter recalled a “home full of free-flowing alcohol, food, and an insurmountable amount of loud laughter” when she was growing up. He had a deep affection for canines, and during his time in the UK he would travel around to different kennel clubs in search of the perfect pet.
He was known as the “sardar of spin” in India, and he possessed a sense of humor that was contagious.
During one of his visits to England, he procured two canines from a kennel, carried them to India, and gave them the names Charles and Diana. At the airport in London, a government employee confronted him with the question, “Are you making fun of our royalty?” Bedi’s response was completely nonchalant: “No!” I will bring the inherited wealth with me.”
The witty remark encapsulated many aspects of Bedi, including his irreverent demeanor and his rebellious streak. And, without a doubt, one of the most talented cricket players who ever lived.