Bishan Singh Bedi, thou shouldst be living at this hour! Jammu and Kashmir, a team he coached and instilled self-belief in, is playing the final of the Ranji Trophy. He would not have been surprised — he had said more than a decade ago that J&K were getting ready to surprise the established teams.

Soon after Bedi was appointed coach in 2011, he saw there was talent aplenty, but the team lacked confidence. This meant ambitions were limited — and limiting. Bedi’s strategy was to hone the talent and inspire self-belief. In 2013-14, J&K made their first Ranji quarterfinal. In June 2014, all-rounder Parvez Rasool played for India. Under Rasool’s captaincy, J&K beat multiple champions Mumbai outright the same year. These were propitious early steps.

As Rasool said in an interview with this newspaper, “Bedi sir came into J&K cricket, and that’s when our mindset changed. Before that, participation was enough. The great man told us: ‘Beta, go and compete, you have the........

© The Hindu