What Bishan Bedi never said!

Well he never said that the 1990 Indian team be thrown into the sea!!

In a TV programme Sunday Night, Bishan Singh Bedi clarified that he had never said that the Indian team should be thrown into the pacific ocean after a narrow loss to Australia.

Speaking on Cricket Controversies programme on NDTV Sunday night, Bedi, the Indian coach then, said the comment was wrongly printed and actually what he said (after a humiliating loss) was that if somebody wants to commit suicide by jumping into the sea, he won’t stop him!

Unfortunately, his anguish, with little touch of humour, became a reckless comment by the time it reached the countrymen and created one of the biggest verbal turmoils in Indian cricket.

His wife, also on the programme, said that while people may have thought of Bedi as aloof and arrogant at times, he was only being frank and forthright.

In fact, Bedi has been forthright and candid (read outspoken) throughout his life (as player, coach and columnist) which was evident when he objected to Vaseline 'abuse' by Lever during England's tour of India in late seventies.

A year earlier at Kingston, to protest against West Indies immoral intimidation he had declare India's second innings rather prematurely.

However, Bedi's wife did say that at times she felt that his criticism of Sourav Ganguly was little harsh and in arguments with her husband on Sourav, she often defended Sourav and asked Bedi to be soft on him!

Interestingly, Atul Wassan, a pacer on the tour, jokingly pointed out that Bedi, in zest, had told them during that tour, after one bad performance, that make sure that if your performance is not good on the field, at least is it good off the it!