Bishan Singh Bedi tears into BCCI, MS Dhoni, and Suresh Raina

Indian spin bowlers Bhagwat Chandrasekhar (L), Bishen Singh Bedi (2nd from L), Erapalli Prasanna (third from left) and Srinivas Venkatraghavan (R)

Former Indian spinner Bishan Singh Bedi has accused BCCI of being biased towards a certain set of players when to comes to their remuneration policy.

“Can you compare Cheteshwar Pujara and Suresh Raina? If you can’t compare, then how can Raina be in Group A of BCCI’s central contract while Pujara is in Group B,” Bedi told TOI.

When asked whether Raina’s relationship with BCCI President N. Srinivasan could be the catalyst of this uneven pay-policy, Bedi said, “that’s it.”

Cricketers falling under Group A get an annual retainer-ship of ? one crore while Group B players get ? 50 lakh.

The legendary spinner revealed his thoughts on Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

“I am not a big fan of Dhoni but I must surely say that no one has ever enjoyed so much of power and authority from the cricket body. I believe that not even the great tiger Pataudi or Sunil Gavaskar had ever enjoyed this kind of power.”

“As a leader, he’s not accessible to his teammates,” he added. “This has been said by his team-mate, none other than, VVS Laxman.”

Bedi also agreed that money could take away the fun from the game.

“You tell me some people get a crore for not playing any matches a single match. In our times we use to get Rs 250 per Test match at Rs 50 per day. We beat New Zealand in four days and we were given Rs 200 because there was no play on fifth day.”