Death of renowned spinner Bishan Singh Bedi

The renowned left-arm spinner Bishan Singh Bedi, a former captain of India, died away on Monday. Age-wise, he was 77.

Between 1967 and 1979, Bedi participated in 67 Test matches for India and took 266 wickets. In 10 One-Day Internationals, he also recorded seven wickets. Later, in addition to coaching a number of local teams and working as a selector, he also coached the national team in 1990–1991 season.

Bedi, who was from Amritsar, played domestic cricket for Delhi and racked up 1,560 First-Class wickets in 370 games, making him the most wicket-taker among Indians.

In 1978–79 and 1979–80, Bedi also guided Delhi to its first two Ranji Trophy victories. He led the squad to two runners-up finishes. The four finals, incidentally, took place over a five-year period.

Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar, and S. Venkataraghavan were a dangerous foursome in international cricket who revolutionized the style of spin bowling in Indian cricket. He started playing for India in international cricket in 1966 and continued doing so till 1979.

In the absence of an injured Ajit Wadekar, Bedi, who was renowned for his command of fly and spin, guided India to a historic series victory against England in 1971.

Being frank with his opinions, Bedi did not hold back throughout his playing days. Inevitably, he courted controversy by objecting to England bowler John Lever’s use of Vaseline in 1976–1977, by declaring India’s second innings at Kingston in protest of the West Indies’ intimidating bowling in 1976, and perhaps most famously, by threatening to throw the Indian cricket team into the sea in 1990–1991 after their disappointing performance in Australia.

The Rothmans Cup match loss against Australia prompted Bedi to remark, “The entire teams should be dumped into the Pacific.”

IPL is the biggest fraud, according to Bedi

The Indian Premier competition (IPL) was never something Bishan Singh Bedi supported; in fact, he often denounced the lucrative competition and referred to it as a “scam”.

“I’m not going to talk about the IPL. The Indian Premier League is the biggest fraud in India. Nobody in this room is aware of the whereabouts of IPL’s funds. Millions of rands were transferred out of the nation without the Finance Minister’s consent during the second IPL season in South Africa, he once said.

Additionally, he has blasted national selectors for choosing national teams based on IPL achievements.

“Local T20 competitions should be used as the foundation for Indian selection, not the IPL. There are players on a team who make a lot of money and others who make less. How does the player with the lesser income catch up if he lacks the necessary skills? He only views betting as a solution. I have a lot of cricket experience, so I can predict what will happen in any given match. It’s up to us whether we want to continue being blind despite seeing, he remarked.

After Ravichandran Ashwin famously ran out Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end when the Englishman vacated the crease before the bowler finished his delivery, Bedi continued by asserting that the IPL and the “Spirit of Cricket” are a natural mismatch.