Bishan Bedi, a throwback to a utopian past, turns 75

He praised generously, criticised without concealing the hard edge and laughed with abandon

In the slow-art of spin, Bishan Singh Bedi remains a high-priest. Arguably the finest left-arm spinner to grace cricket, Bedi, with B.S. Chandrasekhar, E.A.S. Prasanna and S. Venkatraghavan, constituted a magical quartet of diverse strengths.

It is a reflection of Bedi’s larger-than-life stature that though he was one among the four greats, he was seen as a leader of that unit and, at times, deemed the oldest too. In reality it is only on Saturday (Sept. 25) that he will join the ‘75 Club’ in which his former team-mates are already members with Prasanna being the senior-most at 81!