Cricket Tales: When Captain Bishan Singh Bedi Conceded An Important Match Against Pakistan

Cricket Tales: The story of the first ever ODI conceded in cricket history.

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India and Pakistan is the most fierce rivalry in the cricketing world, where both the teams' fans invest their all for this match against the arch-rivals. With no bilaterals being played between these two teams now, their encounter in the tournaments becomes all the more hyped. 

However, one cannot imagine an Indian captain conceding a match, against Pakistan, in the decider of a series, and on the verge of winning! 

 Let's deep into this interesting Cricket Tale. In 1978, it had already been five years since Bangladesh was liberated from Pakistan with the help of India. The cricket ties between the two neighbours were finally being resumed. India was to visit Pakistan for tests and one-day series. 

Before the series started, however, team India was called for a briefing, where they were told very clearly - 'don't expect any umpiring decision to go your way, just accept and move on.' At that time, there were no rules regarding the neutral umpires in cricket. The home country had the full freedom of appointing the umpires. 

Pakistan were sure of appointing umpires who would turn a blind eye to all the Indian appeals they can and anything that would help in Indian victory. The tourist players were told to 'keep calm and carry on'. This is what the Indian players did. 

In the first six tests played, a series of decisions were blindly awarded to Pakistan. From LBW, to catch out in slips, to getting caught out at silly point, the umpire turned a blind eye to all. At one point, after being given not out to a clear catch in the slips, Shakoor Rana went on to taunt the Indian captain at the time, Bishan Singh Bedi. Rana said that the only way to get a dismissal here was a bowled and nothing else. 

Moving forward to the ODI series, and despite such unconcealed cheating, India had managed to win one match, while losing one, which made the final match a decider. In the decider match, even though umpires gave one-sided decision, the equation came down to India needing 23 runs from the last 21 balls to win the match & series. 

With a lot of swashbuckling batting yet to come to the crease, India were on the verge of winning. Pakistan pacer Sarfraz Nawaz bowled a bouncer, which was too high and was caught by the wicket-keeper Wasim Bari after a full stretch high jump. A clear wide, which didn't move the umpire a bit. 

Sarfraz bowled another bouncer which was yet again too high, and the umpire stood unmoved yet again. Sarfraz did it again, and astonishingly again for the fourth time in a row, bouncing so high that six-foot Anshuman Gaekwad, batting on 78, had no hope of getting anywhere near the ball. 

The game plan from Pakistan was crystal clear, keep the ball away from the batter's reach and run out the remaining deliveries. It was laid bare for the whole world to see the blatant hypocrisy, cheating and double standards by the umpires Javed Akhtar & Khizer Hayat. 

A bewildered Gaekwad looked at his captain Bishan Singh Bedi in the pavilion. As the Indian team was told to keep calm and carry on, Bedi maintained his composure and called his batters back to the pavilion without any angst. The match was discontinued courtesy of blatant cheating. Bedi had put an end to a disgraceful match and series.

This was the first ODI in the history of cricket to be conceded. Bishan Singh Bedi received criticism for the same back home, but the outspoken and principled Bedi had to stand up for the game and the country, as the proud Indian captain embarrassed Pakistan at their home and took the higher road for the country's pride.