India is mourning the death of cricket legend Bishan Singh Bedi, who died after battling age-related illnesses and undergoing a few surgeries in recent years.
Bedi, regarded as one of the world's finest ever spin bowlers, captained India in 22 of his 67 Tests and took 266 wickets. He made his debut against West Indies in 1966 and played his last Test against England at The Oval in 1979.
He also played English county cricket for Northamptonshire and finished his career with 1,560 first-class wickets, the highest by any Indian bowler. Bedi was an integral part of a famed quartet of India's world-beating spin bowlers in the 1960s and 70s, which included Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. In 2021, Bedi was picked by readers for a place in BBC Sport's all-time India Test XI.
Born in Amritsar in India's Punjab state, by the age of 20, he became the 113th cricketer to represent India in Tests. Over a 12-year career his best bowling performance came in 1969 when he picked up seven wickets for 98 runs against Australia in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta), a Test match that India lost.
In his trademark pink or bright blue turban, he was a spin bowling purist's dream. With a languid run-up and a fluid action, bowling came naturally to him. Cricket writer H Natarajan described the left arm spinner as "stealthy, silent and deadly, a master of deception who conjured variations in flight, loop, spin and pace without any perceptible change in action".
"Bedi flighted the ball higher than any bowler in international cricket; if he could challenge quick-footed batsmen thus, it was only because his command was so complete that he would make the ball descend far quicker than it went up," wrote Ramachandra Guha, a historian and author of A Corner of a Foreign Field, a book on Indian cricket.
West Indies legend Sir Garry Sobers, one of the greatest all-rounders ever to play cricket, said Bedi "took the weight off the ball nicely". Mike Brearley, one of England's greatest captains, called his bowling "beautiful". Australia great Sir Donald Bradman once mused: "Bedi was a real study for the connoisseur and amongst the finest bowlers of his type".
In 1977, he accused England left-arm fast bowler John Lever of using Vaseline to swing the ball during a tour of India. The next year, he forfeited a match against Pakistan, alleging partisan umpiring.
In 1978, he refused a lucrative contract from Kerry Packer to play World Series Cricket, a rebel tournament in Australia, later recounting that Packer's agent had approached him three times with substantial offers. Decades later, he upbraided player auctions in the Indian Premier League, saying: "I just did not like players being treated like horses being sold to the highest bidder".
An intensely social and flamboyant personality, he loved dogs and brought various breeds from kennel clubs home from his stints in the UK. The "sardar of spin" - as he was popularly called in India - had an infectious sense of humour.
He was 77.
