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Bedi is an ordinary bowler: Murali

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 he was 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 of BS Chandrasekhar, Srinivas Venkataraghavan and Erapalli Prasanna.

“Bedi, I don’t think he even comes 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.

“Prasanna is a good bowler. I have seen his bowling. Venkataraghavan is good. But Bedi does not come under it,” he said.

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.