Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar at the Kotla on Sunday. A Telegraph picture

New Delhi: After failing to get the services of Manoj Prabhakar to help their fast bowlers learn the art of reverse swing, the Australians on Sunday managed to rope in Bishan Singh Bedi to offer a few tips to their rookie spin bowlers.

The former India captain, who came over to the nets during the Australian training session and spent a couple of hours with spinners Jason Krejza and Cameron White, said he was there on the invitation of the Australian team management.

“I met them at the dinner hosted by the Australian high commissioner on Sunday night,” Bedi later said. “The Australian manager (Steve Bernard) requested me to come and have a chat with their bowlers and that’s why I came here,” he added.

While old may not be gold for Indians, it is actually so for teams from overseas. Bedi, considered one of the greatest left arm spinners of his time, had always come forward to help whenever a visiting side asked him to share his knowledge with their bowlers. In 2006, he taught a few tricks to England spinner Monty Panesar and asked him to bowl with the higher arm action in order to be more effective.

Bedi said the present set of Australian spinners lacked flight and guile. “Their basic problem is that they also lack experience,” he said.

“Definitely Warne has left a huge void. Let’s see how Australia copes up with that. But to be honest, you can never underestimate any Australian player,” Bedi said. “Krejza is a good off-spinner and so is White. But I guess White is too quick for a leggie,” said Bedi.

Later, the Australian opener Matthew Hayden described Bedi as a role model and a good friend to the Australian cricket team for many years.

“He (Bedi) has been a great role model for me over the years and a good friend to the Australian cricket team and the international cricket community,” Hayden told the media.

“Bishan and I go a long time back at the MRF cricket academy where I gained a lot of knowledge from him. He has incredible knowledge of the game and spin bowling,” Hayden added.

The Indian camp was aware that Bedi was helping out the Australians but it did not appear to them as an overtly generous gesture.

Rahul Dravid, who spoke to the media after the day’s training session, said he thought it was good on the part of Bedi to help the Aussies.

“Cricket is a global game and knowledge should not be kept in store,” he said. “Sharing of knowledge is pretty common in international cricket and we also do it sometimes. I believe it’s a healthy trend.”