BANGALORE, March 27: India’s spin great Bishen Singh Bedi says that the International Cricket Council (ICC) has not handled the chucking controversy well and has pointed out that the ‘doosra’ from an off-spinner was simply a case of throwing.
“The ‘doosra’ is like an illicit child who has been allowed to grow into a monster,” the former skipper said in television programme. “It is a bigger blow to cricket than match-fixing.”
Stressing that there was a need to hate the crime and not the criminals, he termed Pakistan off-spinner Shoaib Malik, against whom accusations of suspect bowling surfaced recently, “a small mosquito” and called Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan “a monster who has taken 500-plus wickets. Even Shoaib Akhtar is a bigger criminal.”
Mincing no words, he took a swipe at the ICC. “They are the biggest criminals and have not handled the issue in a proper manner. Why are the players not allowed to have a say in anything that they do,” he questioned.
“You cannot catch the culprits who fix matches but the incidents of chucking are happening in front of everyone. It is a disease that will keep resurfacing,” he said referring to Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who was reported for a second time in the Kolkata Test for bowling the wrong one, after being cleared by the ICC just weeks ago.
“Who is to blame for the extra psychological pressure on Harbhajan — the bowler himself. Why is it that no one is pointing fingers at Anil Kumble or for that matter Shane Warne, only because they are okay,” he said. “The whole Indian team is behind him, but they are all backing the wrong horse.”
“Throwing is a creation of the subcontinent. We must own it and shouldn’t try to look for excuses. It is the job of the subcontinent to ensure this habit is arrested, the sooner the better.”
