the great left arm spinner Bishan Bedi is no more !!

Vividly remember that Kanpur Test, Nov 1976 – those days, I would follow Cricket (in newspapers) that I would write the scores in a diary and update them next day.. ..

India not playing Pakistan is not new – in 1978 – after 17 years occurred a tour to Pak.  Newspapers reported that Bengal’s Barun Burman would be picked up.   Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was dropped from the squad, which included three uncapped players — Kapil Dev, Bharath Reddy and Yashpal Sharma.  Even as it heralded the arrival of great pacebowler, it sounded the death-knell for the spin quartet comprising Bedi, B. S. Chandrasekhar, E. A. S. Prasanna and S. Venkataraghavan.  Here is an iconic photo of the famed quartet.

In that  disastrous tour, Indian spinners were decimated, Erapalli Prasanna bowled 25 overs for 94 runs without a wicket in the 2nd test, was not even given a bowl in the 2nd and that turned out to be his last Test.  In the 3rd One dayer at Sahiwal,  Indian captain   called his batsmen off the field - they needed only 23 off 14 balls with eight wickets in hand - as a protest against the bowling of Sarfraz Nawaz, who sent down four bouncers on the trot, none of which were called a wide.

The  Sardar with attractive patkas, Bishan Bedi, with a beautiful action, flighted the ball higher than any bowler in international cricket; if he could challenge quick-footed batsmen thus, it was only because his command was so complete that he would make the ball descend far quicker than it went up.

Sadly, India’s ace spinner Bishan Bedi is no more.  Bedi, regarded as one of the world's finest ever spin bowlers, captained India in 22 of his 67 Tests and took 266 wickets.   One of the game's greatest left-arm spinners, he played  ten ODIs too.  He was India's highest wicket-taker in Tests, with 266 at an average of 28.71, at the time of his retirement. Bedi, the legspinner Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, and offspinners Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan made up the celebrated spin quartet that dominated Indian cricket in the 1970s.  Bedi also enjoyed a successful career in the County Championship with Northamptonshire, for whom he took 434 first-class wickets at 20.89.

He made his debut against West Indies in 1966 and played his last Test against England at The Oval in 1979. Born in Amritsar, Bedi began playing cricket at school. When he turned 20, he became the 113th cricketer to represent India in Tests. Over a 12-year career his best bowling performance came in 1969 when he picked up seven wickets for 98 runs against Australia in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta), a Test match that India lost.

At a time when he debuted, Indian Cricket was not on a high ! – the batting was too frail and there was no pace !! -  by mid 1960s started Indian spin revolution – the spin quartet led the way with a few famous wins.  The attack was so much spin oriented that sometimes bowlers like Solkar, Gavaskar – would bowl a couple of overs, the ball would be rolled from thirdman – then with a beaming smile the Sardar would start his assassinations.

At a time, when batsmen only captained, Bishan Bedi became the Captain – in  1976, he declared India's second innings at 97-5 against Clive Lloyd's West Indies at Kingston, Jamaica, in protest against intimidatory bowling and injuries to the team.  In that infamous Delhi test in 1977, he accused England left-arm fast bowler John Lever of using Vaseline to swing the ball – and daringly forfeited a match in Pakistan.

Bishan Bedi's panel  had a simple agenda: "to clean the game". Bedi, India's first cricket manager, with a reputation of  being a straight talker, campaigned for freeing Delhi cricket from corruption.  ~ and when the results were out……… the former India captain lost the election for the presidency of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) by a huge margin to Sneh Prakash Bansal. Bedi got only 285 votes, while Bansal got 3433, and none of the other international cricketers in Bedi's camp could manage even 200 votes in their respective categories.  

Remembering that 2^nd Test at Kanpur Nov 1976 – Bishan Bedi hit 3 sixers and scored an unbeaten 50.  India had the luxury of waiting its no. 11 Chandrasekhar to get into double figures and declare at 524/9 – all 11 scored double figures (there were no centuries too!)  

Remember watching the next test at Chennai – on Nov 26, 1977 – Venkat made a classy 64 with a six of Peter Petherick who had taken a hat-trick in Pakistan.  India won that test comfortably as Bishan had figures of  : 16.4-4-48-5 & 22-12-22-4.

His best Test bowling was 7/98 against Australia at Calcutta in 1969–70, and his best match figures 10/194 at Perth in 1977–78.  His best first class bowling was 7/5 for Delhi vs Jammu and Kashmir at New Delhi 1974–75. In a Gillette cup match he won for Northampton against Hampshire scoring a boundary hit with 1 ball to spare !!   

In his passing away – Nation has lost a great Spinner, a great character, a tall personality.
 
With regret – S Sampathkumar
23.10.2023