IF anything could brighten up a dull, wet Saturday for cricket lovers, it had to be some good old willow talk
IF anything could brighten up a dull, wet Saturday for cricket lovers, it had to be some good old willow talk. That's what Bishan Singh Bedi did at the Cricket Club of India while delivering the second Dilip Sardesai Memorial Cricket Lecture.
Bedi dished out free-flowing wisdom spiced with a fair degree of hilarity which was very much part of Sardesai's personality.
The Sardar of Spin hailed Sardesai's batting ability which came to the fore on India's victorious tour of the West Indies in 1970-71. He also spoke on the departed batsman's fielding and catching 'abilities'. "During the Adelaide Test (of 1967-68), Ian Redpath and Paul Sheahan were going for the sixth run when Dilip was still chasing the ball.
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| Former India skipper Bishan Singh Bedi in his elements during the Dilip Sardesai Memorial Cricket Lecture at CCI in Mumbai on Saturday. PIC/ ATUL KAMBLE |
He then dived and pushed the ball to the boundary. The umpire couldn't give six; he said four. Such was Dilip's great presence of mind and I don't remember him taking a catch.
"People ask me about the turning point in the Oval Test of 1971 which we won against England and I tell them that it was when Dilip got injured and (Kenia) Jayantilal came on as substitute. Jayanti caught (Basil) D'Oliveira and that mattered a lot," Bedi recalled.
Bedi mixed his deliveries as it were to a nicety. From talking about Sardesai's cricketing and personal qualities, he went on to dwell on the chucking controversy. That the list of chuckers in Indian cricket is as high as 132 gives him mixed feelings.
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"I am worried that 132 spin bowlers were bracketed as chuckers but I am happy that one manu00a0-- Srinivas Venkatraghavanu00a0-- has taken up the cudgels on this issue. "Venks has done something the ICC has failed to do," said Bedi, who wondered whether the game's rulers were gagging television commentators when it comes to condemning chuckers on air.
"Unfortunately, the commentators are not saying anything except Michael Holding. It makes me sick to see someone bowling a dart ball and running like he's just conquered the world," he said.
Celebrated commentator Harsha Bhogle, the host of the evening was quick to reassure the former India captain that there were no gag orders from the International Cricket Council to his breed.
Bishan Singh Bedi is pungent; to some, hyperbolic. Above all, he is a great entertainer and a genuine lover of the game. And this will always come shining throughu00a0-- rain or shine.
