The art of Bedi: Suresh Menon on the bowler, the man, and the biography

In this episode, we chat with the veteran cricket writer Suresh Menon on one of India's greatest cricketers - Bishan Bedi

Suresh talks about his early impressions of Bedi and the spin quartet, and explores his relationship with Bedi as a fan, a cricket writer, a biographer and a friend.

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Talking Points:

• The late 1960s and the inception of the spin quartet


• Bedi the prodigy - born to bowl spin


• Bedi under Pataudi and Wadekar - the blossoming of an artist


• Suresh's 2011 biography - Bishan: portrait of an artist


• The craft of left-arm spin - Bedi's digital manipulations


• Why Bedi v Pras might have been more logical than Venkat v Pras


• 'No Bedi, no Test'


• The Vaseline affair in 1976


• Bedi's knack for speaking his mind (and getting into trouble)


• Bedi - the father of cricket in North Zone and Delhi


• His various post-playing avatars - but always calling a spade a spade

Participants:

Suresh Menon (@surmenon)

Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee)

Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)

Related:

Bishan: Portrait of an Artist - Suresh Menon's 2011 biography of Bedi - Amazon.com

Graceful and gracious - Suresh Menon on his favourite cricketer, Bishan Bedi - ESPNcricinfo.com

'I was obsessed with bowling' -Bishan Bedi interview - The Cricket Monthly

Never a cricketer of the year - Mike Brearley on Bishan Bedi -Wisden Almanack

Bedi v Kim Hughes - 1977, Sydney - YouTube.com

Sydney Test 1977, Day 4 - Jai Galagali's channel - YouTube.com

Bedi interview with Karan Thapar, 2000 - YouTube.com

Feeling is the Thing that Happens in 1000th of a Second - Christian Ryan - Amazon.com

From Bedi to Kohli: a cricket writer's journey - 81allout podcast with Vijay Lokapally