Atul Bedade: 10 interesting things to know about the former Indian batsman

Atul Chandrakant Bedade was one of the hardest hitters of the cricket ball in his playing days.

Born September 24, 1966, Atul Chandrakant Bedade was one of the hardest hitters of the cricket ball in his playing days. A flashy stroke-player, Bedade was probably born in a wrong era. His reputation of hitting big sixes helped him earn an India call-up, but he couldn’t quite live up to the hype and ended-up playing only 13 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) for India. On his 49th birthday, Chinmay Jawalekar looks at 10 interesting things to know about the man who could have made it big in today’s T20 age.

 

1.  Baroda-basher

Much before the big-hitting Yusuf Pathan arrived, the Baroda state team had a ferocious striker of the cricket ball in Atul Bedade in the late 1980s and 1990s. He relied mainly on hitting sixes; the only way of playing he knew.

 

2.  India calling

Though Bedade had an ordinary First-Class record, his maiden India call-up for the Australasia Cup at Sharjah in April 1994 came predominantly because the Indian team of the early 90s needed a batsman who could hit hard.

 

3.  Reality check

He soon realised that international cricket was a different ball game and that hitting sixes wasn’t a cakewalk. The bowlers soon exposed the faults in his technique and never allowed him to replicate his domestic cricket’s heroics on international stage.

 

4.  Pressure took a toll

He came into the Indian team on the back of his six-hitting reputation. However, the pressure to hit sixes every time he played proved too much to handle for him as his India career ended abruptly after just 13 ODIs. He scored a lone fifty (51 against West Indies) in his career. His other notable score was 44 against Pakistan in the final of Australasia Cup, which included four sixes. India lost both the games.

 

5.  Impressive strike rate

His career strike rate of 86.33 speaks volumes about his big-hitting ability. It was way higher than his contemporaries and was considered to be extraordinary in the era he played.

 

6.  Face saving act for the Board

In 2006, Bedade saved the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) from massive embarrassment. The BCCI was trying to encourage former cricketers to take up umpiring those days and when it came up with the umpires’ examination, Bedade was the lone former international to feature among 35 former cricketers who took the examination compared to 134 candidates in the non-cricketers’ category.

 

7.  Another ‘first’

Bedade is also the only ex-India player to pass the BCCI’s Curators’ Certification Course, and that too with distinction. He also holds a double coaching certificate from the BCCI – National Cricket Academy.

 

8.  Translator

Bedade successfully translated the BCCI Curators’ course manual from English to Gujarati for the benefit of Baroda’s local curators, who are not well versed with the language.

 

9.  Politics

Bedade is an active member of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and had even contested the Vadodara Municipal Corporation election in September 2010. He is also a key member of the Krida Bharti, the sports wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).

 

10.  Master’s companion

A low-profile cricketer, Bedade has a high-profile friend in Sachin Tendulkar, with whom he shares a great camaraderie.

 

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is senior content writer with Criclife. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed at @CricfreakTweets)

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