Once a Bedi, always a Bedi

By Neil Perera

A recent PTI report says "former Indian legend' Bishen Singh Bedi has "lashed out at the ICC for bending the rules to aid "chuckers like Mutthiah Muralitharan" and called him a "monster ". It is a misnomer to call Bedi a legend as he no longer qualifies to fall into that category, as even in India many Spin Bowlers including Anil Kumble have far outstripped his achievements by many a mile.

Forgetting for a moment his other frailties that are well known, I may sound too charitable if I say that it is his inferiority complex that has prompted him to come out with this asinine statement. After all can you compare a bowler who has taken over 700 wickets or even a bowler like Anil Kumble who is well past the 500 mark to a bowler who has taken only 250 wickets in Tests?

Veracity and credibility

In order to judge the veracity and credibility of the statement made by Bishen Singh Bedi let me analyse the character of this man to the extent that I am aware of. Controversy surrounds this man right throughout his playing and non playing days. He was a constant headache to the Board of Control for Cricket in India right throughout. He has had rifts not only with the BCCI but also with renowned Captains such as Nawab of Pataudi and Sunil Gavaskar. When Bedi was dropped from the Test Side, Sunil Gavaskar the Captain was accused of influencing the Selectors. Newspaper headlines read: "Bedi not a good team man; ousted."
During the 1980 - 1981 Ranji Trophy Cricket Tournament, there was utter confusion, when Delhi was represented by two teams, one captained by Bedi and the other by Surinder Amarnath. When the Punjab - Delhi match was about to commence two Captains representing Delhi came out to toss with the Punjab Captain. The Punjab Captain was asked to choose the Captain he would like to play with and he chose Bedi. However the Umpires refused to accept Bedi as Captain of the Delhi team and eventually they called off the match and walked off...

On two occasions the stewards at Lords had been rude to Sunil Gavaskar and had refused him admission in 1987 although he was legitimately entitled to admission. Gavaskar had stated: "On no ground in the world have I encountered such rudeness and ruthless behavior by the stewards." Then in retaliation, in September 1989 when he was offered Honorary Membership of the MCC he refused to accept it. Bedi who was with the Indian touring team at the time, on hearing of Gavaskar's refusal wrote to him regarding this matter. Some of the extracts of the letter is as follows: "I felt I must show how shocked and ashamed I am of your decision- - - - - - You have undone all your deeds with one stroke by ridiculing the greatest Institution in the Cricketing World. You have proven that only the mighty can be petty. I feel personally quite disgusted and ashamed. I even played Cricket with you. You have let down the Indian Cricket team, World Cricket and more importantly the Indian people in Britain."

Anglophile

The reaction of Bedi to issue the above statement proves that Arjuna Ranatunga was quite justified in calling him an Anglophile. Closer home, I wish to briefly wish to describe my encounter with this man. The year was 1975. The Sri Lankan Cricket team was touring India on a six week tour to play three unofficial Test matches and several matches against zonal teams. Our team comprised of Anura Tennakoon (Capt.) David Heyn, Duleep Mendis, Roy Dias, Bandula Warnapura, Sunil Wettimuny, Tony Opatha, Ranjith Fernando, Ajith de Silva, Lalith Kaluperuma, D.Sahabandu, D.S. de Silva, Russel Hamer, Ranjan Gunatileka, Mahesh Gunatileka and W.Withanage. I was Manager and Abu Fuard, was the Asst. Manager and Coach.

The second Unofficial Test was played at Ahmedabad. Bedi the Indian Captain winning the toss decided to bat first. At close of play on the first day, India was around 260 for the fall of 7 wickets. The Sri Lanka team arrived at the grounds at about 8 a.m. and after a few stretching exercises went straight onto the nets. While the team was practising I noticed that the Groundsman was using a heavy hand and sweeping the grass in the playing area with what appeared to be an ekel broom. Bedi and Lala Amarnath the former Indian Test player and the father of Mohinder and Surinder who were in the Indian team were watching the operation of the Groundsman from a distance of about 20 yards. As the operation of the Groundsman appeared to be a somewhat suspicious I immediately rushed towards the centre and was shocked to see that that the groundsman had removed a heap of grass forcibly from the playing area.

I immediately signalled to Abu Fuard and Anura Tennakoon to come over. When Abu Fuard saw what the groundsman had done he was furious and using the four letter to good effect he demanded an explanation for his conduct. A shivering groundsman most hesitatingly revealed that he was sweeping the grass as requested by Bishen Bedi.

Written complaint

Soon afterwards the Umpires arrived at the scene and we informed them of what the groundsman had revealed and showed them the heap of grass that had been removed from the wicket. The Umpires also admonished the groundsman and on inquiry by them informed that he was requested by Bedi to remove the grass from the wicket. We lodged a written complaint with the Umpires and indicated our unwillingness to play on a wicket that had been illegally tampered with. It was noteworthy that two of the best spinners in the world at that time namely Bedi and Venkataraghavan were playing in that match.The Indian Officials pleaded with us to continue with the match and eventually we decided to play under protest.

The match eventually started about 45 minutes late. The Indian media was pressing me for a statement on this incident and I was compelled to repeat the statement made by the groundsman. India was all out without much addition to the overnight total and Sri Lanka was dismissed for 168 runs.

India lost 2 wickets in their second innings. A total of 15 wickets fell on that day, the majority of them falling to the spinners of both sides.

On the following day our team was practising at the nets prior to the start of the match when we saw Bedi marching towards us. " Mr Manager " he yelled, " you have accused me of cheating. All the newspapers have published your statement to that effect. I told him that I had only repeated what the groundsman had told the Umpires.

When he started arguing further I told him firmly to leave the place as I had nothing to do with him. Sri Lanka finally lost in a low scoring match with the spinners on both sides doing the damage. At the end of the tour the Indian Board hosted the Sri Lankan team to a dinner. and a notable absentee at this dinner was the Indian Captain Bishen Singh Bedi, without even a word of apology for his absence. The foregoing are only a few of the many incidents where Bedi has caused embarrassment to the Indian Cricket Board and the Indian players.

What credence can anyone attach to a most damaging statement made by such a person when much respected and renowned Cricketer like Sunil Gavaskar has said that Muralitharan is the best off-spinner the world has ever seen.