Subject: Tribute to Bishan Singh Bedi
Worded by: Yogesh Gogwekar
Address: Mahim, Mumbai
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Bishan Singh Bedi, A Saradar of Spin, has taken an exit from all types of first class Cricket nearly 44 years back, now he has taken the exit from this world on 23rd October 2023. Every lover of Cricket will definitely miss him. Over the last two years, he was suffering through various health issues and also one month ago, he underwent knee surgery. When news came about his demise, I felt that now we are not going to listen about his outspoken opinions on the game, especially, the thorny on legal bowling actions and also some matters which are going to affect the game of cricket. He was not happy with the bowling action of Sri Lankan spine bowler Muttiah Muralitharan and became a harsh critic of such a legendary player. Similarly in the Monkey gate controversy which had erupted during India –Australia Test match series in 2007-2008 in Sydney, Bishan Singh Bedi sent the message to the Indian Captain Anil Kumble stating, “As a Captain, take a decision you will be proud of when you look at history. In this matter, we must try to understand that he always fought for the betterment of the game. As Suresh Menon rightly pointed out in his book on Bishan Singh Bedi named as ‘Bishan: Portrait of Cricketer’ that wimpy phrase ‘rebel without cause’ never applied to Bedi, for he always had a cause. To prove this, Menon has given some examples. He said that Bedi fought to include Erapalli Prasanna for the England tour or to get a better deal for his team players. He further stated that Bedi simply rejected Packer's resolutions and stood on his principles. Book also mentioned how Bedi felt very bad when Sunil Gavaskar turned down the membership of MCC in 1990 as he thought that such an offer was the honor of our Country. After winning the 3rd Test Match against West India by record breaking run-chase at Port of Spain, West Indies opted for aggressive four-man fast bowler attack for 4th Test Match; Bedi objected to the tactics of bowling beamers because they could not get wickets of Indian Batsmen. Similarly, in the 1976-77 series against England, he accused John Lever for illegally polishing the ball by using the Vaseline. Bishan Singh Bedi never liked to bowl negatively in any kind of cricket. According to him, it is not the proper game of cricket. Therefore, in one incident, he recalled the batsmen from the crease and conceded the match in protest at the bowling of Sarfaz Nawaz who bowled four consecutive bouncers in succession and Umpire did not give the same as wide. That time India wanted to win 23 runs in 14 balls with eight wickets in hand.
Bishan Singh Bedi was a unique Cricketer. He always enjoyed the poetry of the game. He was one of the architects of India’s death-by-spin strategy of the late 1960s and 1970s. There were four quartet of spinners all offering different challenges to Batsman. Bedi was a key member of a renowned quartet of Indian spin bowlers. During this spin era, Bedi was master of flight and Armer, Prasanna was great off-spinner, B S Chandrasekhar was best leg spinner sometimes used to bowl googly and S Venkataraghavan was great orthodox off-spinner. Most of the people, during the Indian spin Era, used to say. ”If Erapalli Prasanna was cerebral and Bhagwat Chandrasekhar was intuitive, Bedi was more the artful dodger, though he too could lay an elaborate trap for a batsman when he set his mind to it”. Still Bishan Singh Bedi was a different type of cricket player in the game of Cricket as he always wants to see good things on the field. As Suresh Menon correctly mentions, “Bedi always focused on unwritten laws of cricket, on the importance of the game the way it should be. He bowled like an angel, is a man of strong likes and dislikes, he has seldom used logic in his defence or bothered to hide his biases”.
Bishan Singh Bedi was born in Amritsar on 25th September 1946. At the time of his birth, there were so many worries in the Bedi Household as no son has ever survived in their family. As per the siblings are concerned, he had four elder sisters.. Therefore, they named him as Bishan which is the name of Hindu God Vishnu who is a preserver in the Hindu pantheon. His Father Sardar Gian Singh Bedi was a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and was the President of District level Local Congress Party in Amritsar. He was very friendly with Bishan but still Bishan is much closer to his mother. In one of the interviews, Bedi said that he inherited self-belief from his father and learnt the way to remain independent from his mother. He completed his school education from St. Francis School. During his school days, Bishan Singh Bedi was a very shy boy and very helpful person. He was one who wheeled his friend around the school who was on a wheelchair due to the attack of polio. In school, he developed an interest in Cricket and Tennis but he picked up the cricket ball with the intention to become a fast bowler and Cricket became his passion. He got an opportunity to go to Jalandhar to watch the Cricket match between England versus North Zone where he met Gurpal Singh who was the captain of Khalsa College. Even Bishan Singh Bedi was studying his graduation in Hindu College; he often used to go to Khalsa College for his net practice. Gurpal Singh saw spinner in Bishan Singh Bedi and conveyed Bedi to become orthodox leg spinner instead of fast bowler. Later on Bishan Singh Bedi did not turn back and went further to become a great spin bowler of the world.
Bishan Singh Bedi was very cautious about his finger exercise. He used to play marbles. He said that this game is not only amazing to him but it strengthens his fingers also which helps him to bowl effectively. He also used to wash his own clothes, especially, towels because such acts of wringing helps him to strengthen his forearms and wrists. According to his wife, Anju, he used to sweep the floors by moving the furniture around and keeping the same in the right place. He started playing the cricket matches for Khalsa College; he developed the game enough to play the Ranji Trophy debut in January 1962 for Northern Punjab who was playing against Southern Punjab. He was just fifteen years old. That match was drawn but Bedi took 2 wickets for 40 runs in the first inning and 1 for 32 in the second innings. During that time Northern Punjab team was not a good team and it would not be beneficial for Bedi for his career in Cricket. At last he got an opportunity to prove his talent against the match with Delhi in which he took 7 wickets for 32 runs in first inning and 4 wickets for 43 runs in second inning. With such performances Bishan Singh Bedi made his place in the North Zone side under the leadership of Indian Skipper M. A. Pataudi. Even after getting a chance in the Northern Zone for Ranji trophy, Bedi did not dream of playing for India but worked hard at his bowling to bring perfection in spin. Very soon, based on his performance in local matches, he had been selected to play for India and after his great success in test matches a boy from Amritsar became the Captain of the Indian team. While speaking to Bishan Singh Bedi, from his school days to get a place in the Indian team, Suresh Menon writes in his books that Bedi was fond of saying that his early years in the game passed in a blur. He played Cricket, graduated from College; life went on and things happened to him. There were many ups and downs in his life but things sorted themselves out and arranged themselves nearly to his advantage. Bishan Singh Bedi did not agree with him and said that, “you cannot trust anything or anyone, nor can you say that it was I who did this or that. Nature will take his course. Do not defy it. Accept is”.
Easy run up, fluid action in follow through and half jump has confirmed the batsman that he had already been dismissed before the ball has been pitched. Thus, his bowing style has a poetic rhythm and has been described as graceful, even beautiful, and full of guile and artistry. He would not be tired to bowl for a full day without losing his rhythm and control. For that purpose, India’s greatest opening batsman and former Indian Captain, Sunil M Gavaskar said that, “Bishan bowls like a butterfly and sting like a bee”. Such a bowler played his first debut match against West Indies on 31st December 1966. But his success started against Australia in 1969-70 under the captaincy of M. A. Pataudi. He took 21 wickets in 1969-70 test series and started showing his performances in each and every series later on. He took 25 wickets against England in 1971-72 series, 18 wickets against West Indies in 1975-76 series, again 25 wickets against England in 1976-77 series and 31 against Australia in 1976-77 series. He played 67 test matches and bagged 266 wickets with an average of 28.71. Fourteen times, he took more than five wickets in an inning and only one time he has taken 10 wickets in one Match. He has bowled maximum main overs in test cricket and was/is second bowler to do this after West Indies spinner Lance Gibbs who stood first.
In 1976, he became the captain of the Indian team. He won his first match in the West Indies at Port of Spain in the 3rd test in which India chased a record 406 runs in the fourth inning. After the massive defeat in Pakistan in 1978, he was replaced by Sunil Gavaskar as a Captain of the Indian team. Bedi played his last match against England on 30th June 1979. He played only 10 one day internationals and took 7 wickets with an average of 48.57. He played his first one day international match on 13th July 1974 against England. He never used to like one day games but he is having one record of best bowling in one day international game which has not been broken yet. He did it at the time of playing against East Africa in World Cup of 1974, he bowled 12 overs 8 maidens, gave away 6 runs and one wicket (12-8-6-1). He played his last one day international match on 16th July 1979 against Sri Lanka. He played 370 First Class Cricket in which he took 1560 wickets with an average of 21.69. He also played for English County from Northamptonshire. In 1990, he was coached to the Indian team but removed as coach due to his threatening remarks to dump the Indian team into sea on the return journey due to bad performance of team India.
I have not seen much of Bishan Singh Bedi’s bowling. I remembered him watching him at the end of his career mostly in 1978-79. Normally, I watch classic cricket matches on TV. In one particular match played in Australia in 1976, Bedi had done magic with Australian player Kim Hughes. Bedi tossed up the first ball in the air & Hughes stepped out and hoisted the ball for six. Second ball was also in the air, Hughes drove for four. And the third ball, oh, it was a fantastic delivery. It was pitched slightly short of good length, but not a slow turner, it dropped sharply & crashed the off stumps. It was an Armer delivery which had been planned in the proper way. Therefore, Suresh Menon at the time of writing biography of Bishan Singh Bedi says, Bedi's art lay in the apparent artlessness of his flight and his control over length. He could pitch six balls in an over on a fifty-paise coin, but the batsman seldom realised that each time it came from a slightly different direction, a slightly different angle or at a slightly different pace. He would undercut the ball and make it curve from outside the off stump and either straighten it or get it to keep its course towards the leg stump. On the next ball, he'd impart more spin by cocking his wrist. This would arrive more slowly, and, if the batsman was lured into that uncertain forward jab, it would catch him by surprise and take the edge.” Thus, in the truest sense, Bishan Sing Bedi was\is one of the greatest spinners of all time.
Even after the retirement from all types of Cricket, Bishan Singh Bedi continued to remain with this game. He started teaching or coaching this game to those who love this game. Even the person cannot offer to come for net practice due to economic problems, Bishan Singh Bedi used to drive his four wheeler hundreds of kilometers to pick up that person’s location to bring him for net practice and drop him back to his location. He distributed the required equipment free of cost and he would himself raise the fund to run his coaching classes to reduce the burden on the players. During the coaching, he never taught any Indian cricketers to quarrel with the Cricket Board or the organisation even though he was often controversial. He continued to fight for the good and talented Cricketers and also for the betterment of the game. His loyalty to the game was unwavering. Today’s Cricketers are getting handsome amounts for their play. As India’s most respected opening Batsman Vijay Merchant said that these (Today's) Cricketers owe an over lasting debt of gratitude to Bishan Singh Bedi, sportsman, cricketer, captain, administrator and supreme fighter in the cause of cricket and the cricketers. Also, there are interesting things about Bedi. He never forgot his old friends, school teachers and always ready to help any sports persons during their bad times. In this matter, I am providing two examples here. One was with his teacher Uma Behl at St Francis School. She went to Kolkata (Calcutta that time) to watch the Cricket match between India and Australia in 1969-70. She sent a message to Bishan Singh Bedi about her arrival. Her husband told her that he would not remember you as nine years had passed since leaving his school. Suddenly Bedi came to see them and greeted them touching her feet and she was overwhelmed. Another incident was of Surjeet Singh, India's Hockey team Captain who was a friend of Bedi died in a road accident. Bishan Singh Bedi gave the portion of his earnings from his benefit match to his family. He always sees every sport from the human ground.
Such a great Sardar of Spin has left us on Monday 23rd October 2023 for his final journey. Many big personalities, former and current cricketers, sports persons from other games, politicians, and the Prime Minister of India paid tribute to him. It is true that the Cricket world lost a great lover of Cricket games. To pay tribute to such great spinner, I will quote the words of great English off spinner John Laker who once said that his idea of Paradise was Lord's Cricket Ground, bathed in sunshine, with Ray Lindwall bowling at one end and Bishan Singh Bedi at another ( this is the nice image, coupling the fast and slow bowler most remembered for their classical actions; but it an image I also cherish for its splendid indifference to batsmen, who Laker apparently thought had no place in heaven at all). Indeed Bedi can only be a magical bowler. No slow bowler in living memory has commanded a more graceful action, more glorious flight or... On especially on good wickets, - more prodigious spin.
As Mike Brearley, Former Captain of England wrote beautifully about Bedi. He said that, “the first epithet that comes to mind for Bishan Singh Bedi’s bowling is beautiful. Fizzing the ball from hand to hand in readiness to bowl, he would approach the wicket with a rhythmic side of action. His variations were subtle: an extra tweak of the fingers here, an adjustment of wrist there. Of all the slow bowlers of Bedi’s time, none forced you to commit yourself later than he did.”
At the end, I salute to the great king of left arm spin bowler and great Cricketer.
Thank you
Yogesh Gogwekar
References
1. Bishan : Portrait of Cricketer by Suresh Menon
2. Cricket : Mike Brearley
3. Bishan Sing Bedi : Sardar of Spin
4. Idols : Sunil Gavaskar
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