Muralitharan Slams ‘Ordinary’ And ‘Controversy-Seeking’ Bedi
This was long time coming. After being barraged by the former Indian left-arm spinner, Bishen Singh Bedi for years and branded as a chucker, Muthiah Muralitharan has lambasted the former Indian great by calling him a controversy-seeker and an ordinary bowler of his times.
Speaking to PTI, Muralitharan said that had Bedi played in the current generation, he would have been hit out all the time because of his lack of variation. He also added that Bedi had an unnecessary knack of inviting controversies. Bedi has been one of Muralitharan’s staunchest critics, and believes that Muralitharan’s bowling should have been deemed illegal by the ICC. Bedi has often called Muralitharan a chucker apart from terming him a ‘javelin-thrower’ and other such names. Bedi had also said that Muralitharan’s ‘Doosra’ – a delivery that was invented by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Saqlain-Mushtaq-c88743 – was illegal.
For most part of his career, Muralitharan had ignored the barbs that were fired in his directions, but in recent times, he has threatened to sue Bedi for his remarks. Muralitharan had retired from international cricket at the end of the first Test match at Galle with a record 800 Test wickets. Bedi had said that while he did not respect Muralitharan as a bowler, he did think that Muralitharan was an excellent human being.
Muralitharan also compared Bedi with the other three spin bowlers of his generation; BS Chandrasekhar, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Srinivas-c2564 Venkataraghavan and Erapalli Prasanna. He said that Bedi was not in the same class because of the lack of any variation. Murali said, “He just bowled left-arm spin and the pitch did the variation for him. That is what he bowled.”
Murali also said that he had seen some of the video footage of what Bedi bowled, and when asked about comparing him with other spinners of that era he added, “In modern era, if he plays he will get hammered every ball, that is what will happen. So no comparison,"
Muralitharan complimented Prasanna and Venkataraghavan as being good bowlers.
The former Sri Lankan off-spinner had a piece of advice for Bedi as he asked him to stop making controversial statements to the media. He added that Bedi should think before he spoke about controversial topics.
Muralitharan stopped short of calling Bedi jealous as he said that the only reason why Bedi had called his ‘Doosra’ illegitimate was because he (Bedi) himself did not have too many variations in his armoury. He added that he did not have any issues with the controversies his bowling action created.
Muralitharan was called for his action on more occasions than one, and Darrel Hair was at the centre of all the controversy surrounding the calling of no-balls when Muralitharan bowled. The Australian crowds were also said to be at their most hostile when Muralitharan bowled in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Australia-c746, and would chant ‘No-Ball’ each time he bowled. Not only the crowds, but the former Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard had once remarked that Muralitharan was a chucker. The offie had then accused the Aussie crowds of being abusive and threatened never to play in Australia.
Later, the ICC cleared his action by performing some biomechanical tests.
Muralitharan had the best reserved for his own contemporary, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 had ever produced. He added that Kumble’s records were enough to speak for themselves.
Speaking of the batsmen, Muralitharan said that there was nothing to choose from between Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara. However, he added that if one were to look at the statistics, Tendulkar was far better.
It is a well-known fact that Muralitharan’s record against Lara has never been too great, and in one of the series between http://www.senore.com/Cricket/West-Indies-c760, that was played in Sri Lanka, Lara had gone on to score more than 600 runs off his own bat.
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