Name:

Bedi, Bishen Singh

Date of Birth:

25 Sep 1946

Gender:

Men

Place of Birth:

Amritsar, Punjab Province, British India

Date Died:

23 Oct 2023

Career:

Test: 1966 - 1979
ODI: 1974 - 1979
First Class: 1961 - 1980

Teams:

Northamptonshire (Regional)
India (Country)

Record chase of 406: Bedi & Lloyd

Bishan Bedi: Classical left arm spinner and captain of India

Born: 25 September 1946 at Amritsar, Punjab, India

Arguably the most artistic of all India's great spinners, Bishan Bedi was a work of art on the cricket field. He had a perfect action that was a joy to watch.

Bedi combined all the skills and guile of spin bowling. He used great variations in flight, spin and pace to deceive and dismiss batsmen. He made his first class debut at the age of 15 for Punjab in 1961/62. He made his Test debut against the West Indies in Kolkata in 1966.

He was hot-headed man who captained India in 22 Tests.

In 1976 he declared an innings against West Indies at Kingston in protest. This was the deciding fourth Test. Beds was so appalled by what he perceived to be intimidatory bowling and biased umpiring that he decided enough was enough. And so with India five wickets down in their second innings and just 12 runs to the good, he refused to let his lower order go out to face the West Indian pace quartet, effectively conceding the match. Earlier in the same series, he led the Indian team that chased down the Windies target of 406 in the 4th innings to win the match. This remained the highest ever chase until the Windies beat it in 2003 against Australia.

Bedi's most prolific series was on the tour to Australia in 1977/78. He took 31 wickets in the series, including a match bag of 10-194 on the pace friendly pitch at Perth.

His 266 wickets were a Test record for India when he retired. He had much success with Northamptonshire in the 1970s, twice taking 100 wickets in the season. During the 1975 World Cup he produced the extraordinary analysis of 12-8-6-1 against East Africa at Leeds.

He did a lot of coaching in his retirement including a brief stint as India's coach. In recent years, Bedi has sullied his name with a series of attacks on the spinning action of maestro Muralitharan - and has largely been dismissed as an angry old man.

Source: CricketCrowd Staff Reporter