Integrity is defined as a quality that encompasses honesty and adherence to sound moral principles. Individuals with integrity are principled and dependable and give priority to ethical behaviour and accountability in both their personal and professional lives. Their words and actions are driven by an overwhelming need to uphold the principles they hold dear, even at the risk of annoying and antagonising persons and institutions close and dear to them. Money and material benefits do not hold any attraction for such persons, who invariably face hardship and taunts through most part of their lives.
The popular examples of persons of exceptional integrity - Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela etc - are leaders who left an impact on lives of millions of people. It is only seldom that one sees individuals of unparalleled rectitude and righteousness in the world of sports. After the advent of big money into sports during the recent years, this small number has dwindled even further. Sportspersons of the present appear all too eager to follow the directions of administrators, sponsors and team management in taking positions and mouthing opinions.
In this scenario, it would appear completely unbelievable and illusory that there lived a cricketer who spoke his mind and took principled stands on issues, even at the risk of facing financial ruin. Bishan Singh Bedi, the legendary left-arm spinner and former skipper of the national side who left for his heavenly abode last week, belonged to that rare breed of human beings who placed their integrity above everything else. He had the intellectual capacity to think through issues independently and was articulate enough to voice his opinions in a clear and cogent manner. And he stood by his principles, despite the various setbacks he faced in his career and life on account of upholding them.
Bedi was the first player who raised the issue of players being paid a pittance by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). When Bedi first came into the national squad, national players used to travel by second class in trains while administrators lived in luxury. Despite winning back-to-back series abroad in 1971 - against the West Indies and England - and defeating England at home in 1972-73, when stadia were packed to full capacity for all the matches, the lot of the players did not improve. Bedi felt that this was unfair and wanted captain Ajit Wadekar to take up this issue with the BCCI. When Wadekar failed to do so, Bedi told him in simple terms that he failed the players, an observation that did not please the skipper. In the argument that followed, Wadekar accused Bedi of being “Pataudi’s man”. Bedi was incensed and demanded an apology if he was to play again under Wadekar. The issue could be resolved only after Wadekar mouthed an apology to him.
It is to Bedi’s credit that he took up the issue of poor remunerations to players when he became the captain. When, during an “unofficial” Test against Sri Lanka at Nagpur in 1975, the amenities provided to players fell short of the expectations, Bedi remonstrated with the authorities. He did this despite the fact that he had not yet been appointed as the skipper of the full-fledged squad. No other cricketer would have risked annoying the administrators at a juncture when he was under consideration for captaining the national side. But Bedi felt that he would less than true to himself if he let go off his principles and sucked up to the authorities.
When England, under Tony Grieg, toured India in 1976-77, they surprised one and all by winning the first thre Tests of the series in a comprehensive manner. This came as a shock to followers of the game in the country who had not seen England win a series here since 1934. The wrecker-ic-chief was a left-arm fast bowler named John Lever, who was making the ball swing prodigiously, making life difficult for Indian batsmen. During the third Test at Chennai, one of the umpires picked up a gauze thrown by Lever on the ground and found that it contained vaseline. Lever claimed that he had placed the gauze containing vaseline over his eyebrows to prevent sweat from falling into his eyes. While that explanation might have carried some amount of credence, what was unacceptable was Lever’s practice of wiping the brow and polishing the ball immediately thereafter. The ball thus received a coat of vaseline which helped it to achieved more lateral movement.
Bedi was not impressed by the stand of England side that this was an “honest mistake” and not a premeditated act to alter the condition of the ball. His side had lost two Tests and was on the verge of losing the third when this incident took place. Bedi minced no words by stating that he was disgusted that England “stooped so low” and alleged that something appeared wrong even in the first Test where Lever took 11 wickets.This allegation stung the visitors and their press corps came down heavily on Bedi, despite the test done on the ball establishing the presence of a foreign substance on its surface. Finally, the BCCI and Marylebourne Cricket Club (MCC), who controlled cricket in England then, came to a settlement and matter ended with both of them accepting the stand of Grieg that this was an inadvertent mistake that should not have occurred. For the record, England did not win either of the two Tests that followed nor was Lever a match-winner thereafter.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the matter so far as Bedi was concerned. He was playing for Northamptonshire, an English county, as a professional since 1971. His county refused to renew his contract when it came up for extension after the 1977 season, despite Bedi performing extremely well for the county during the previous years. This would have caused substantial financial losses for him but Bedi took this blow on the chin without flinching and did not either express remorse or show angst at the unfair treatment meted out to him.
Another instance when Bedi spoke out his mind was when he was the manager of the national side in 1990. Mohammed Azharuddin had been pitchforked into captaincy by selection committee and the BCCI who wanted to rein in the senior players, who were showing signs of indiscipline. Bedi and Azhar got on well during the tour of New Zealand and it was expected that the latter would bloom under the watchful eyes of the former. But the exact opposite happened during the tour of England that followed. Before the first Test at Lord’s, Bedi advised Azhar to choose to bat if he won the toss as the pitch looked full of runs and ideal for piling up a huge score. But some of the senior players in the side, who developed wobbly knees on seeing a cloud cover over the ground, convinced Azhar to bowl first. Azhar took the call to field first without informing Bedi and the latter was livid at this development. The prescience of Bedi could be seen from the fact that Indian move backfired badly and England piled a mammoth score of 653/4 , with Graham Gooch scoring 333. Bedi publicly dissociated himself from this decision of skipper and relations between them were not the same again. Bedi lost out here also as he was removed as manager at the end of the tour.
Bedi did not desist from calling “a spade a spade”even when he was captain of the national side. When the West Indies, under Clive Lloyd, resorted to intimidatory bowling in the Test match at Kingston, Jamaica, in 1976 that sent four top order batsmen to the hospital, Bedi declared the innings closed after the fall of five wickets, saying that he did not wish to add more cricketers to the injured list. “Only one side was playing cricket” was his refrain. Similarly, when Sarfraz Nawaz started sending down vertical wides to prevent Indian batsmen from scoring runs in the One-Day International at Sahiwal in 1978 and umpires did not intervene, he did not hesitate to recall the willow-wielders and concede the match. He felt that there was no point playing a game in the face of such unfair tactics and blatantly biased umpiring.
Bedi also showed the gumption to state openly that Muttiah Muralitharan’s bowling action was not clean. “I called him a javelin thrower….people say he has got 800 wickets, I would rather say it’s 800 run outs”, was his sarcastic jibe. He went vocal with his observation that one cannot bowl a “doosra” without straightening the arm, which amounted to chucking. Murali was incensed and most of the cricketers and administrators took umbrage at this insulting remark but Bedi did not back off. He stuck to his guns as he felt that administrators bent over backwards to accommodate Murali on an issue went against the basic principles of the game.
There are many more such episodes to recount. Bedi had no qualms in passing on tips to Iqbal Qasim, another left-arm spinner, during the Bangalore Test between India and Pakistan in 1987. “On a turning track the most difficult ball is one that does not turn”, was his advice. Qasim took this to heart and played a key role in shaping Pakistan’s 16-run win over the hosts. Bedi also helped out Dennis Amiss, the England opener who was having trouble playing spin bowlers during the 1972-73 series, by bowling to him in the nets. He never failed to applaud a good shot played by a batsman off his own bowling. To him these were actions that enriched the reputation of cricket as a gentleman’s game.
The accolades that poured in from all parts of the globe on his demise showed the high regard with which Bedi was held in the cricketing world. The powerful axis of administrators, sponsors and players might have shunned him as a loose cannon, but he acquired a demigod status in the eyes of the ordinary followers of the game, who showered him with respect and love. In a time when Mammon and his ilk are dominating the game, he was a rare moral compass, uncorrupted by greed and untainted by association. Cricket will definitely be poorer by his demise.
Well played, Bedi. You will live forever in the hearts of cricket fans.
(The author is a former international cricket umpire and a senior bureaucrat)
