Locals mourn cricketer Bishan Singh Bedi's loss, remember his Amritsar connect

Neeraj Bagga

Amritsar, October 23

Bishan Singh Bedi (77), former Indian cricket team captain and legendary left-arm spinner, who passed away in Delhi on Monday, kept in touch with his ancestral house in Puttalighar.

The house still exists in the area which still belongs to the Bedi family. A Congress leader of the area, former councillor Surinder Chowdhary said, “Bishan Bedi’s father Gian Singh Bedi was a Congress party leader who died over three decades ago.” He recalled that Bishan used to visit his ancestral house on and off, adding that he last visited some two years ago.

Born in Amritsar in 1946, Bedi was part of Indian cricket’s golden quartet of spinners, whose other members were Erapalli Prasanna, Bhagwat Chandrashekhar and Srinivas Venkataraghavan. The four formed the core of India’s bowling unit for more than a decade between 1966 and 1978.

Bedi played 67 Tests for India and took 266 wickets with 14 five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori expressed deep grief over the death of the former captain of the Indian cricket team, Bishan Singh Bedi, who was a native of Amritsar, here today.

In a message, he described the death of Bedi as a big jolt to cricket lovers and added that the man known as ‘Sardar of Spin’ in the history of Indian cricket will always be remembered for his immense contribution to the game. He expressed his sympathy with the bereaved family, friends and relatives and thousands of cricket lovers.

Bedi had visited his alma mater Khalsa College in 2015 and was the chief guest at the congregation of schoolchildren for an anti-drug drive. He took a tour of the heritage building of the college while recalling the old memories relating to the time he spent here as a student.