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Bishan Singh Bedi is never one to mince words—about his contemporaries, protégées, or administrators. He courts controversy like no other. He is the enfant terrible of Indian cricket.
He is a strict disciplinarian. He threatened to dump the Indian cricket team into the ocean in 1990 when he was coach.
A compilation of his fiery quotes:
“I called him (Murali) a javelin thrower. I can call him a shot-putter. People say that he has got 800 wickets. I would rather say that it’s 800 run-outs! On one hand you have Shane Warne who is a magician and then you have Muralitharan on the other hand. It’s total shambles. And Harbhajan Singh is no different.”
At a panel discussion at the Raj Singh Dungarpur Summit on World Cricket.
“If Murali doesn’t chuck, then show me how to bowl.”
About bowling to Tendulkar:
“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.”
Speaking to Sambit Bal on CricInfo in February 2002.
“The ICC is not a reformatory school,And neither is the cricket board of any country. It is time the umpires did their job. When a bowler is chucking, he’s referred to panels and the home cricket board. Why not do the same for a wide or no-ball, then?”
Speaking to Anand Vasu for CricInfo in April 2002.
On Gavaskar’s role at the National Cricket Academy:
“I had a lot of time for his batting but never as a thought leader. You tell me what his contribution has been. He is destructive, there is nothing positive.”
At the Wisden International Awards in 2003 speaking to John Buchanan, the then Australian coach:
“Tell us, John, have you made this Australian team great, or have they made you?”
(Similar sentiments were later expressed by Shane Warne.)
On T20 cricket:
“the most vulgar expression of cricket”
Quote of the day:
I never know how much of what I say is true. – Bette Midler
Make Time For Sports. 
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