One year without ‘cricket’s conscience keeper’ Bishan Bedi

It has been one year without the legendary Bishan Singh Bedi, arguably the last fearless voice in cricket, and the sport is poorer in his absence. Best known for his enticing and magical left-arm spin, and often called the ‘conscience keeper of Indian cricket’, the former India captain passed away on October 23, 2023, aged 77, after being crippled by multiple ailments concurrently.

With Bedi’s passing, the voice that was raised on behalf of Indian cricketers has gone. Now, there is hardly any cricketer around, present or past, who could point a finger at injustice to cricketers, or at the establishment’s decisions that need to be debated, let alone raise a protest. Since his death, the Indian team has registered several memorable wins, many talented youngsters have emerged, players’ salaries have been enhanced, and a few hundred million dollars have been added to the coffers of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, but there will be no custodian of Indian cricket like him.

Family loses its ‘pillar’

Indeed, the most affected has been Bedi’s family – his wife Anju, daughter Neha, and son Angad, the cricketer-turned-Bollywood actor – and also his fans. Anju describes this one-year period without her husband as “very tough, very difficult”.

“We are still not able to accept that he is not there anymore. I feel his presence in the house just about all the time. His laughter, his happiness, his mannerisms still echo in the house. I [at times] feel like he has gone out to play a match or some tournament or on some cricket-related work, because he used to go out for 10-15 days. So, I feel that he has gone out and will come back,” an emotional Anju tells Patriot.

Anju, a housewife, also credits Neha and the Mumbai-based Angad for supporting her since the tragedy. “My children have been very cooperative, Angad especially. He has been up and down from Mumbai many times since he passed on. I also went to Mumbai and lived with Angad four or five times, but the house [in Delhi] has so much emotional attachment that I wanted to come back to my own house,” she says about ‘Cricket Abode’, on the outskirts of Delhi.

“Bishan and I built this house together with so much love and care, and moved into it in 1990, just after India’s tour of England [where Bedi was India team coach]. And I never wanted to abandon my house. You have an attachment with it: you have built your life and your own house, so you cannot desert it. There are so many memories attached to it,” she stresses, referring to the sprawling farmhouse where Bedi indulged with his team of dogs and had peacocks as well.

The large-hearted Bedi, also known for his jokes, one-liners, and his unhindered laughter, had a heart attack, a brain stroke and blood clotting, all of which combined to leave him in a wheelchair. He never recovered from the multiple blows.

Teammates to help

Despite his strong likes and dislikes, Bedi has left behind some loyal teammates. “His friends have helped a great deal, emotionally. Kapil Dev, Madan Lal, Gursharan Singh, Kirti Azad, and Sunil Valson have been regular visitors to the house. They have been very good and have been in constant touch. Madan, anyway, was always like a younger brother to Bishan. My brother from Kanpur keeps visiting us… just in case there was any problem,” Anju underlines.

One of the reasons Bedi liked Madan Lal was that they had a few things in common. Their coach, Gyan Prakash, and the alma mater, Amritsar’s Hindu College, were the same, though Madan Lal joined the college after Bedi had left. “He liked me because I was hard-working, sincere, and I performed as an all-rounder. And I never hurt anyone. I think he liked me for these qualities,” Madan Lal tells Patriot.

Bedi, as Delhi captain, was instrumental in making Madan Lal switch from Punjab to Delhi in the 1972-73 domestic cricket season. Earlier, Bedi, who was representing Southern Punjab in national tournaments, had migrated to Delhi in 1968-69.

On missing Bedi, 73-year-old Madan Lal said: “Time has gone by so quickly; it’s one year without Bishan. I cannot imagine that he is gone. He was a big name in international cricket and he spoke his mind. He had a vision and created a work ethic within the Delhi team. His legacy remained with Delhi for a long time. Now, it is on the decline, though.”

Friends again

Bedi hoped Angad, a left-arm spinner like him, would pursue a career in cricket, but after not making it beyond the under-19 team, Angad chose Bollywood. Though they disagreed on several matters, Angad is content that they became ‘friends’ again in the end.

“Every breath of mine belongs to him. And now when he’s not there, physically, I feel…,” he fails to find words. “I will not be able to put this emotion in words or explain myself to anybody.

Also Read: Bishan Singh Bedi: The man who helped Delhi cricket stand on its feet

“For me, he has not just been my father but also my guru. He has always been ‘Bishan sir’ to me. When I was small, he was my friend, he was my guru when I started playing at the age of 11. We were in a guru-shishya (teacher-student) relationship. When I grew up, left cricket, and joined the film industry, we became friends,” he says. “In between, there were several differences between the father and the son. Then, when we became friends again, I got my father back. But by that time he had fallen ill and I took care of him, along with my mother.”

Angad is satisfied that he was at his father’s bedside when he was ailing. “He was ill for the last six years, and in the last three-four years he was unable to construct sentences. He had never said ‘I love you’ to me, but before leaving us he did say it. The best thing is that he saw my family and his grandson and granddaughter,” he says about his kids.

Dad’s girl

Neha, one-and-a-half years older than Angad, says she missed her father much in the year gone by. “I was his daughter but he raised me like a son, pushing me into rally driving, martial arts etc. Whatever I wanted to do or try, he wanted me to just go ahead and do it, with one thing in mind — never be scared of anybody or anything,” says the mother of a girl.

“In the last one year, once father was no more in my life, I realised that whatever I had to do, I had to do it on my own, and that there’s nobody to run it by. When he was there you wouldn’t think about him not being there,” she confesses. “After he left, I started doing a lot of meditation; it makes me remain grounded. I have also started listening to gurbani (religious hymns).”

Neha says she was crestfallen watching her father being treated. “Every time I would see him in the hospital, I would just start crying and he would hold my head and say ‘why are you crying?’” she recalls. When Bedi returned home in a wheelchair, he would indulge with Neha’s daughter, Suhavi, then six. As she would juggle the fluorescent rubber balls prescribed for Bedi’s hand exercises, the grandfather would suddenly burst into a smile and call out “catch it, catch it”, as one witnessed on a visit to his home in March 2021.

The fingers, which captured 266 wickets in Tests, seven in One-day Internationals, and 402 in the Ranji Trophy, besides 434 for Northamptonshire in English county cricket, now needed strength.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi and has covered sports for over three decades)