Bishan Bedi, India's legendary spinner, dies at 77

 

Bishan Bedi, India's legendary spinner, dies at 77

Former India captain was ailing for the last two years and had undergone multiple surgeries during this period

Bishan Bedi was known for his fearless and outspoken views during and after his playing career  Hindustan Times via Getty Images

Former India captain Bishan Bedi has died at the age of 77 in Delhi.

Bedi was ailing for the last two years and had undergone multiple surgeries including one on the knee about a month ago. He is survived by his wife Anju, their daughter Neha and son Angad, and his son Gavasinder and daughter Gillinder from his earlier marriage to Glenith Miles.

One of the game's greatest left-arm spinners, Bedi represented India in 67 Tests and ten ODIs from 1967 to 1979. He was India's highest wicket-taker in Tests, with 266 at an average of 28.71, at the time of his retirement. Bedi, the unorthodox legspinner Bhagwath Chandrasekhar, and offspinners Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkataraghavan made up the celebrated spin quartet that dominated Indian cricket in the 1970s.

Outside his feats in Indian cricket, Bedi also enjoyed a successful career in the County Championship with Northamptonshire, for whom he took 434 first-class wickets at 20.89.

"Sad news indeed," the former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, Bedi's team-mate in 44 Test matches, said. "He was the finest left-hand bowler that I saw."

As a bowler, Bedi was a connoisseur's delight, renowned for the classical beauty of his action and his ability to maintain a perfect length over long spells while subtly varying his pace, trajectory and release.

"Like most great bowlers, his variation was subtle," the England captain Mike Brearley wrote of him. "Of all the slow bowlers of Bedi's time, none forced you to commit yourself later than he did. With tiny, last-second adjustments of wrist and hand-angle, he could bowl successive balls that looked identical, perhaps as if each would land on a length just outside off stump.