Bishan Bedi, the man who teased and tormented batsmen with his left- arm spin and cunning, has always been a bold man. He never feared in flighting the red cherry and foxed batsmen with his guile.
On Thursday, when the former India captain penned a letter to Delhi and Districts Cricket Association president Rohan Jaitley, it made for compelling reading. Media and social media lapped it up.
As a columnist, Bedi paaji was, and is, always sharp. No beating around the bush, straight to the point, in his caustic style.
Yet, when he chose to lambast Arun Jaitley and criticise the DDCA, which will put up the former Union Minister’s statue, it sounded bizarre. Bedi wrote in the letter about all wrong-doings of Jaitley and how the DDCA functioned during his time.
Old timers will vouch, the love-hate relationship between Bedi and DDCA is not new. It started many decades during the time of RP Mehra. This generation may not be able to find out much on RP Mehra even through Google.
So, Bedi slamming DDCA is not new.
In a country where so many stadia are named after Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and even Rajiv Gandhi, few people have objected. Bedi, for sure, also never objected to these venues.
Come to tennis, bang in the heart of the Capital, when former All India Tennis Association president RK Khann named the refurbished stadium after himself, it lead to a furore in the mid 90s.
Davis Cup players were furious. Today, nobody cares the DLTA facility is now known on Google maps as RK Khanna Stadium. Players have come and gone, matches have been held at Khanna Stadium. RK Khanna is no more, but his son and grandsons use the office premises, for which the venue is better known.
Having seen RK Khanna’s style of functioning, he was strong and ruthless. Yet, players feared him and could never tell him, change the damn stadium name.
Bedi paaaji says he will surrender his DDCA membership. He also says “bring down the name of the stand” which bears his name.
I suppose, the DDCA is left with no choice but to oblige the legend.
Wish Bishan Bedi raises the same alarm relating to stadia named after Gandhis and also the country’s highest sports award — Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award. Mr Bedi, you are a legend, please do this also. We do not need stadia named after politicians who never won a national championship.
As regards the details provided on DDCA and how Arun Jaitley functioned, Bedi paaji should please enlighten cricket lovers on other officials who ruined the Capital’s cricket establishment. The list is quite long.