Retired spin great Muttiah Muralitharan on Wednesday lashed out at his long-time detractor Bishen Singh Bedi, calling the former Indian captain a controversy monger and ordinary bowler who would have been hammered by any batsman if was he playing now. Bedi has been an untiring critic of Muralitharan by repeatedly calling the Sri Lankan a "chucker" and asking the ICC to ban the Sri Lankan`s "doosra" as it was illegal.
Muralitharan, who retired last week after completing 800 Test wickets at Galle against India, made an uncharacteristic attack on Bedi, saying that he was just an ordinary bowler.
Asked about the lack of world-class spinners in India, except for Harbhajan Singh, Muralitharan said Bedi was not in the league B S Chandrasekhar, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Erapalli Prasanna.
"Bedi, I don`t think he does not even come to a contest on that. I saw some (of his) bowling of his playing days. In modern era, if he plays he will get hammered every ball, that is what will happen.
So no comparison," the world`s most successful spinner said in an interview.
Though without mentioning the constant criticism he got from Bedi, the affable Sri Lankan advised the former Indian captain to refrain from whipping up controversies.
"He (Bedi) is also a controversial person. He has lot of controversies everywhere in the world. And he should think about himself first rather than talking about other people," Muralitharan said.
Asked about Bedi`s comments to ban the `doosra` from international cricket, Muralitharan lampooned the Indian by saying that he has no variations in his bowling and was therefore critical of others.
"He (Bedi) did not have any variation. He just bowled left arm spin and pitch did the variation for him. That is what he bowled," he said.
"You forget the best spinner is Anil Kumble. Not Bedi or Venkataraghavan or any other. I think the best ever spinner produced (in India) is Kumble. No doubt about it and nobody can doubt it. Statistics-wise and on the basis of other things, he is far ahead than other guys", he said.
Muralitharan refused to compare between Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara but said on the basis of statistics, the Indian maestro was far ahead of any batsman.
"Sachin and Lara have been the most consistent batsmen in the world (to face my bowling). I admire them. I have most regards for those two guys and now place Ricky Ponting also in that list.
"Statistically, they were performing brilliantly during the last decade. Now they missed players like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath ... Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer to open. So the youngsters will have to come and fill the void. It took a little bit of time for them," he added.
0 comments:
Post a Comment