What Bedi did in 1974 series in England
rkri...@informix.com
When India left for England in 1974 , India was considered a
better side. They had won their last 3 series before that. 1971
against WI in WI , 1971 vs Eng in Eng and 1972-72 against Eng in
India. I started following cricket during 1972-73 series.
The indian team to Eng was:-
SM Gavaskar Bombay
ED Solkar Bombay
AL Wadekar (cap) Bombay
FM Engineer Bombay
Sudheer Naik Bombay
Ashok Mankad Bombay
GR Viswanath Karnataka
BP Patel Karnataka
BS Chandrasekhar Karnataka
EAS Prasanna Karnataka
Kirmani Karnataka
BS Bedi Delhi
S Madan Lal Delhi
S Venkataraghavan (v.cap) TN
S Abid Ali Hyderabad
As you can see that Karnataka and Bombay consisted almost the
entire team.
During the initial stages of the tour Wadekar got injured ,one of
his fingers was broken. The Doctors ruled him out for the rest
of the series. Wadekar wanted to come to India so that his place
does not get wasted in the team. That would have meant that
Venkat would have been the captain for the series as he was the
vice-cap. When Wadekar told this to the team , Bedi vehemently
opposed Venkat being the captain. He told that under no
circumstance will he play under Venkat. The issue didn't get
solve and within no time the entire team was divided . The Bombay
brigade obviously supported Wadekar which indirectly means that
they wanted Venkat as captain. Bedi was supported by Delhi and
Karnataka players. It was a surprise to see that Chandra and
Pras supported Bedi. There were some neutral players like Vishy,
Abid Ali who stayed away from this politics. New players like
Patel , Madan Lal were coerced into supporting. When Wadekar saw
that the whole team was divided he took the stupid decision of
playing in the series bcos he thought that only when he does not
play will the problem of Venkat as captain will come. He thus
wasted 1 batsman. He was in considerable pain during the series.
No wonder he flopped badly. Even though the problem was
temporarily solved ( that's what Wadekar thought), the damage was
already done. The team was divided. No one played with much
interest. India lost all the 3 test badly. It was alleged that
Indian bowlers were intentionally bowling badly. The day before
we got for 42 in the second innings of Lords test ( hence the
name Summer of 42 when referring to that series), most of the
players were piss drunk. To add to the misery Sudheer Nayak was
accused of stealing socks from a shop.
When India came back , Wadekar was greeted by garlands made out
of slippers in Bombay airport. The Indian board demanded an
inquiry on the debacle and Wadekar told everything that happened
in that disastrous tour to Eng. The board was furious with both
Wadekar and Bedi. The board told Wadekar that why didn't he
inform them from England. Wadekar and the manager of the indian
team took decision unilaterally w/out informing the board.
Wadekar accepted his mistake and he was also pissed off with
Bombay fans the way they treated him. He retired from cricket.
The Indian board decided that Bedi will NEVER play for India
again. The next series India played was against Lloyd's WI in
1974-75. Who will captain India. Appointing Venkat was out of
question as it was known that most of the players don't want him
as captain. In a 'brainwave' the board called back Pataudi when
he had left cricket for more than 5 years. Obviously he was
badly out of form. He played so bad that he was called the "non
playing captain of Indian team". But his job was to captain the
side as he was a no-nonsense captain.
Bedi did not play the first test in B'lore ( in which
Richards,Greenidge made their debut). The second test was in
Delhi and Bedi got his supporters into a shouting match "no bedi
, no test". Rajinder Goel was almost into the side. I don't
know what happened but Bedi managed to get back into the side.
This was the test in which Pataudi was injured alongwith Gavaskar
and could not play. Venkat was appointed make shift captain for
the test. In due course of time people forgot (typical of Indian
public memory) what Bedi did and he was 'rewarded' with captaincy
in 1975-76 tour to NZ and WI.
Gavaskar could never forgive Bedi's behavior in 1974. During
Bedi's captaincy from 1975-76 to 1978 , Gavaskar was slowly but
steadily building his position from strength to strength. This
was the period in which SMG not only proved himself to be the
best Indian batsman but also one of the best in the world. SMG
started disregarding Bedi openly in some crucial issues. One
such issue was player's remuneration. If today Indian players
are making lot of money it is largely due to SMG who fought with
Indian board over players money during late 70's. This is in
fact acknowledged by Bedi also that SMG brought lot of money to
Indian cricket.
I happy that Bedi did not make much money thru cricket. I am
also happy that Bedi got slaughtered by Imran in the Karachi test
in 1978. Whenever people talk of Bedi , that massacre will
always be mentioned. He was a great bowler but a bad team
player. He was the rogue who divided the indian team on regional
basis.
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I got this info from various sources , mostly from Venkatraghavan himself.
=========================================================================
-------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====-----------------------
http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
Arun Simha
One small matter....
Gavaskar and Kapil in their respective autobiographies do not think very
highly of Venkat as captain or team player. Apparently, he used to abuse
players on and off the field very often. His temper was abolutely out of
control. Check out "Triumph of the Spirit" - Kapil Dev and "Idols" and
"Sunny Days" by SMG.
Incidentally, I recall that the Tamil Nadu Ranji team did not prefer
Venkat either and advocated Krish Srikkanth. A friend of mine from
Madras has actually seen Venkat treat junior players like errand boys.
("Go get me cigarettes" etc)
I doubt if Bedi had anything to do with regional bias or groupism. The
alleged schism had more to do with personal preferences and attitude.
Venkat and Dilip Vengsarkar go down in post war -Indian history as the
most "unapproachable and unfriendly" skippers. Check out "Azhar" by
Harsha Bhogle for more on Dilip's captaincy in the Windies in '89.
Regards
Arun
rkri...@informix.com
Very true. What you have written above is irrefutable fact. I am not
supporting Venkat. But the attitude of Bedi in that series was
unpardonable. You can't let down your country just because you can't get
along with a particular player.
Prabhdeep K Bajwa
> http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet
By the way! All the rec.sport.cricket netters! you should also know that
Mr. Ravi Krishna is a known hater of Sikhs and have argued lots of times
that Punjabis are bad playerS!!!
Sandeep S Bajwa
sba...@fyi.net
Ravi Krishna
Prabhdeep K Bajwa (pkb...@pitt.edu) wrote:
: By the way! All the rec.sport.cricket netters! you should also know that
: Mr. Ravi Krishna is a known hater of Sikhs and have argued lots of times
: that Punjabis are bad playerS!!!
Too bad if you can digest facts.
By the way all netters should know that:
(a) Mr Bajwa is a known Khalistani.
(b) In the past he has advocated in rec.sport.cricket that for Indian team
to do well they should infuse more Punjabis in the team. Can anybody beat
this. ( if anyone wants a proof of it , I will get if from Deja News
Archive and post it ).
Mr Bajwa , knowing that you are a Khalistani , no apology is deemed
necessary. You better stay away from this newsgroup. This has nothing to do
with Khalistan.
Krishnan
er comrades Bajwa and ravi Krishna.. and what precisely does all this have to do with cricket?
cheers
ak
---
************************************************************************************
Arun Krishnan
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of South CArolina
ph #: 803-777-6750
Home: 100, Riverbend Drive
App # E-6,
West Columbia,
SC-29169.
Hmmm... I have nothing profound to add here like so many of my comrades seem to have.:-)
************************************************************************************
Ravi Krishna
Krishnan (kris...@drk.controls) wrote:
: er comrades Bajwa and ravi Krishna.. and what precisely does all this have to do with cricket?
you are right , but ask Mr Bajwa first , who instead of writing about Bedi's
attitude or cricket , chose to slander me as anti sikh. You can't expect me
to remain silent.
Thanks.
Krishnan
Sometimes Ravi, silence can be just as eloquent.:)
just ignore the crap.