Murali is a monster: Bedi

[King]

Lashing out at ICC for bending rules to aid 'chuckers', the former Indian spin legend said the Lankan off-spinner is a 'monster', who's killing the game by setting wrong example. More... Murali is a monster: Bedi Agencies Posted online: Tuesday, August 07, 2007 at 1115 hours IST New Delhi, August 7: Lashing out at the ICC for bending rules to aid "chuckers" like Muttiah Muralitharan, former Indian spin legend Bishan Singh Bedi said the Sri Lankan off-spinner is a "monster" who is killing the game by setting a wrong precedent for youngsters. • Atapattu released from national contract • 'Indo-Pak cricket equivalent to 10 Ashes' • 'Shoaib Akhtar won't last long' "That man (Muralitharan) is the best shot-putter in the history of cricket. People like him are just killing the game and nobody is doing anything about it," Bedi said at a function. "The most worrying thing is that young boys are trying to emulate him. So the ICC have ended up creating a monster with all their technological nonsense to help him continue," he added. Bedi, who has been quite vocal in his criticism of the Lankan bowler's action in the past, said Muralitharan had been allowed to take advantage of a physical deformity, which was unfair on the batsmen. "Here is a case of taking advantage of a physical deficiency. He has 60 five-wicket hauls in Tests, which is equivalent to scoring 60 hundreds. This is so unfair. He is going berserk with his action," Bedi said. "The reason I think he cheats is because I have seen him bowl perfect leg breaks. But when it comes to his other deliveries, he bends his arm," he added. Bedi hit out at the ICC for using bio-mechanical tests to detect chuckers and said it should go by the assessment of the on-field umpire, who actually watches the bowler. "Cricketers don't play in labs. They play on grounds and chucking is something that can be detected with a naked eye. You don't need to go to Australia for those fancy tests to decide whether a bowler chucks," he said. The former spinner said Muralitharan may go down as the highest wicket-taker in Test history but he can never be put in the same bracket as Australian Shane Warne. "Warne is a genius. His action is just beautiful and he cannot be compared with Muralitharan. He is a league apart. Murali will complete 1000 Test wickets but they would count as mere runouts in my eyes," he said.

[King]

I think Bedi simply doesn't understand the legit bowling rules. He continues to talk about the bend in the arm, that's about it.

[Donny]

Was just mentioning this to a friend who inquired if Bedi had similar things to say about Bhajji. Does anyone know ? I remember when flexion numbers like 14% were being 'thrown' around about Murali's doosra, Bhajji was measured at 22%.

[sm332]

I have little to no time for Bedi's nonsense ... when was the last time he said anything relevant and meaningful? Classic case of a guy trying to continue making the headlines ... he is our veyr own Sarfraz Nawaz.

[Sooda]

Bedi is a bitter senile old fool.

[Gambit]

This is one of the very few instances where Bedi is right.

[Donny]

I did a bit of research. Found this: An interview with Bedi. February 2002: 'Chucking is a bigger threat than bribing or betting' Bishan Singh Bedi speaks to Sambit Bal Bishan Singh Bedi the bowler has little in common with the man in real life. The bowler was cunning, a master in the arts of trickery and deceit. The man is no-nonsense, forthright and blunt to the point of being tactless. With Bedi the bowler, batsmen had no clue what was coming next. Bedi the man holds nothing back. But there is one common feature: he was a delight to watch, he is a delight to speak to. What about Muralitharan? Let him start bowling first. Are you suggesting that he doesn't? Why me alone, ask any cricketer worth his salt and he will tell you the same thing. I often tell people: if Murali doesn't chuck, then show me how to bowl. I have nothing against him personally, but it's grossly unfair to the game. Tell me, how can you call it bowling? He has no follow-through and he makes no use of his shoulders. And with an open-chested action like that, you can't possibly be round-arm. Murali's arm doesn't go up at all. It goes [demonstrating the final rotation of Murali's bowling arm] from here, from the shoulder level. I have a picture of him bowling somewhere: he looks like a good javelin thrower. But if we leave aside his action for the moment - because we were discussing adaptability - he has shown that you can perform equally well in Test cricket and one-day cricket. But how can we leave aside his action? Do you mean chucking should be made legal? How much does his action contribute to his success? The problem is with the way he imparts spin to the ball. He doesn't even land it on the seam, yet he gets huge deviation off the track. Normally, you bowl with your shoulder, the shoulder follows the ball and, in the follow-through, the body follows the shoulder. Cricket is a side-on game. Batting, bowling, fielding... everything is side-on. How can you extract so much spin without any follow-through? After releasing the ball, he just stops. He does have a very good line and a beautiful loop; his trajectory is very fast and the ball dips very sharply which makes it very difficult to hit him out of the attack. And he has developed this away-going ball now... That's another dangerous development. In the good old days, it was called the floater. It was bowled using the shoulder, like an outswinger. You bowled it with the offspinner's action, but without imparting any spin. You rolled it, and put in a little extra shoulder, so the ball drifted away. Pras (Prasanna) and Venkat (Venkataraghavan) used to do it beautifully. Fred Titmus, Ashley Mallett, Lance Gibbs, they all did it. So how do they do it now? Now they do it with their elbows and wrists. And they do it at a good 90 to 95 kilometres an hour - whereas an arm-ball or a floater is at the same speed as the normal ball. It is an illegitimate ball. Are you saying all offspinners - Saqlain, Harbhajan, anyone bowling the away-going ball - are guilty of this transgression? Yes, they all are. Anyone using the elbow to turn it the other way is doing it illegally. Another thing I would like to point out here is that cricket is a very social game. It's perhaps the only sport immediately connected to life. When something untoward or unfair takes place, we remark, "it's not cricket". Now what's this doosra thing? It's like the other woman. Isn't that what you would call it? There was a time when there were chuckers galore in Australian cricket. At one go, Bradman had them finished. It just takes a firm will. Have you brought up this matter with your friend Venkataraghavan? Yes, I have. I said, `Venks, if you think Murali chucks, why don't you call him?' But umpires are afraid; they want to secure their jobs. The ball is in the ICC's court. I think the best possible solution would be to get all the top umpires of the world and let them jointly decide. Because all of them, I tell you, know it. Then there will be no question of one umpire standing up against the authorities. Venks told me this, and this is very interesting. He was going to umpire in the World Cup final at Lahore between Sri Lanka and Australia (in 1996), and he said, `If I think anyone is chucking, I will call him.' And he was told, `No, you won't.' So is that why he didn't umpire in the match? No, he didn't. You see, somewhere, principle comes into play. I admire Darrell Hair [who called Murali for chucking] for his courage. He showed some guts. But hasn't the ICC cleared Murali? Hasn't it been certified that he was born with a defective arm? What nonsense. Ian Meckiff was born with a defect. But he had to quit. Now they say Shoaib Akhtar was born with some defect. It is just too bad, honestly. Some people are born blind, or without limbs. Will a blind man be allowed to fly an aircraft? So why should a bowler be allowed to chuck because he has a defective arm? What does not conform to law is illegal; and the law has to be applied uniformly. The problem is that the parent body is not taking cognisance of the problem. It may soon become monstrous - every team may end up with three or four chuckers. That's a real possibility if these fellows are allowed to go scot-free. I am not concerned about individuals, I am worried about the survival of the game as an institution. So you think this could bring about a paradigm shift in cricket? Of course it could. It poses a far more serious threat to cricket than betting and bribing. I have seen young kids in Delhi trying to do what Murali does, and I have tried to stop them. But they respond by saying, "Woh bhi to kar raha hai, so why are we being stopped?" It's not a healthy trend. But the onus is not on Murali or Sri Lanka. It's upto the ICC to put a stop to this nonsense. Cricket is a very simple game. It doesn't need too much of legislation, let's keep it to the minimum. TV replays, third umpires, match-referees, with all this we are still not able to stop chucking. You once said you fancied getting Tendulkar out caught and bowled. A lot of left-arm spinners ask me how I would bowl to Tendulkar. I say that I will bowl to get him out. Yes I said I think I will get him out caught and bowled, because he is a small man. There is every possibility that he will hit you over the top, but I will work on his greatness because a man's greatness is also his weakness. Is cricket yours? I hope I will still be talking about cricket on my death-bed. It's a wonderful subject. I am so glad that I didn't take up anything else. To read the full interview, go here: http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/225767.html

[zubinpepsi]

But hasn't the ICC cleared Murali? Hasn't it been certified that he was born with a defective arm? What nonsense. Ian Meckiff was born with a defect. But he had to quit. Now they say Shoaib Akhtar was born with some defect. It is just too bad, honestly. Some people are born blind, or without limbs. Will a blind man be allowed to fly an aircraft? So why should a bowler be allowed to chuck because he has a defective arm? What does not conform to law is illegal; and the law has to be applied uniformly. The problem is that the parent body is not taking cognisance of the problem. It may soon become monstrous - every team may end up with three or four chuckers. That's a real possibility if these fellows are allowed to go scot-free. I am not concerned about individuals, I am worried about the survival of the game as an institution.

i agree with him on this...y do they have to compromise on this?

[ludhianvi]

Bedi is simply says his stuff blatantly without any diplomacy. He is definitely NOT even equal to Sarfraz Nawaz. Sarfraz is a lunatic whereas Bedi just doesnt say his opinions in a diplomatic way. Bedi's choice of words may not be right, but his arguments have an underlying truth in them and they do address a realistic problem. What happens sometimes is a generation gap. He seems to be a purist of the game and wants the cricket to be played the way it was played when he played it. That's the way I see it.

[The Outsider]

Bedi obviously was not good in the science as a student.

[Cricketics]

whenever i read bedi's articles only one thing comes in my mind.. he once came to our school where we were doing our cricket practice.. shaked hands with everyone and one guy who was wearing his cap, forgot to take his cap off and did a hand shake with Bedi with that cap on, and then Bedi was like " u got no manners..... bla bla." he actually scold that guy in front of whole bunch of ppl on his first ever visit @ school

[talksport]

I opened this thread thinking the bedi could be mandira....

[ludhianvi]

^^^^^^^^^^^ :hysterical: Testing for first time: :scooter:

[Guest dada_rocks]

this guys has gone nuts keeps barking same $hit again and again.. I have had detailed debate with people here on this issue and things came down to the belief that even with <15 degree flexion the initial bent in arms gives him advantage iver others.. It's unproven uncorroborated conjecture, cud be right cud be wrong. So unless people back this claim with sthg substantial I guess Murali is being unfairly crucified.

[The Outsider]

It's unproven uncorroborated conjecture, cud be right cud be wrong.

Don't think it's unproven or uncorroborated. Try the spin movement of the wrist with a bent elbow and with a straight one (not straightening in either case) and you'll notice wrist movement is greater in the first case. A bent elbow does provide Murali with an advantage but the law is about straightening so it's irrelevant to the topic. It's like saying Warne's unusually thick fingers or McGrath's height provided them unfair advantage.

[Guest dada_rocks]

Wrist movement is not barred there is no rule over how much can u go with that.. and to answer the wuestion, depending on how stiff or loose limbed u are u can move wrist more or less. Next thing would be people complaining so and so is loose limbed and hence gets unfair advantage..

[King Tendulkar]

Bedi is jealous because he can't wear caps !

whats the point in that stupid comment!

[Gambit]

Bedi is jealous because he can't wear caps !

Not in very good taste.

[Lurker]

"That man (Muralitharan) is the best shot-putter in the history of cricket. People like him are just killing the game and nobody is doing anything about it," Bedi said at a function. "The most worrying thing is that young boys are trying to emulate him. So the ICC have ended up creating a monster with all their technological nonsense to help him continue," he added.

[coffee_rules]

Don't think it's unproven or uncorroborated. Try the spin movement of the wrist with a bent elbow and with a straight one (not straightening in either case) and you'll notice wrist movement is greater in the first case. A bent elbow does provide Murali with an advantage but the law is about straightening so it's irrelevant to the topic. It's like saying Warne's unusually thick fingers or McGrath's height provided them unfair advantage.

The argument of deformity, optical illusion is all BS. Then how come he can straighten when he bowls a legbreak, or when he throws from the outfoeld. There was one over where he bowled legspin to Warne and turned the ball as much as Warne. In that his arm is straight like a arrow. He doesn't have no friggin deformity, except that he can bend the arm when he wants to and straighten when he wants to. And he does straighten it when releasing the ball. ICC agreed to let him bend 15 degs and straighten, giving him unfair advantage over other wrist spinners who don't bend their arms. It is difficult to bowl a doosra without a bent arm and the power it gets while they straighten it. Have to agree with Bedi on this one. It is a daylight robbery from Murali. Murali has 700 victims and all his clean bowled and stumped out victims are mere runouts as Bedi puts it.