Comedy Of Errors As Two Bihar Teams Turn Up For Ranji Trophy Match Against Mumbai, Start Deyaled
Published - 06 Jan 2024, 12:45 PM | Updated - 23 Aug 2024, 12:24 AM
In a bizarre sequence of events, two teams from the Bihar state team turned up for the Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai at Patna’s Moin-ul-Haq Stadium on Friday. Both the squads that reached the venue claimed to be part of Bihar’s Ranji Trophy leading to utter confusion and chaos.
The underworked infrastructure meant that the start of the match got delayed after a scuffle between the two teams. Members of the Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) got into an argument that needed the local police to intervene and settle the issue between the two parties. The match finally started around 1 pm.
The team that had reached the ground first was picked by the BCA president Rakesh Tiwary, and it was the side that eventually played the game on Friday. while Secretary Amit Kumar chose the other team. Not a single cricketer was named in both the squads.
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Rakesh Tiwary while speaking to the Indian Express said that his team was chosen based on merit revealing that the secretary of the other Bihar squad has been suspended.
“We have picked the team on merit and that is the right team. You see the talent that is coming from Bihar. We have a cricketer (Sakib Hussain), who is picked in the IPL. We have a 12-year-old prodigy making his debut in the game. The other is being picked by the secretary who is suspended, so it can’t be the real team” said Tiwary.
Countering Tiwary’s claim, Amit Kumar the other Secretary questioned whether it is the BCCI president who selected the Indian team saying that a BCCI press release always has the sign of BCCI Secretary Jay Shah in the end.
“First things first: I won the election, and I am an official secretary of the BCA. You can’t suspend a secretary. Secondly, how can a president select a team? Have you ever seen BCCI president Roger Binny announcing the squad? You will always see the signature of Secretary Jay Shah,” he said.
The Bihar Cricket Association later released a statement on Friday blaming suspended secretary Amit for the chaos saying that even picked a fake team and also attacked the official of the board.
“There was a life-threatening attack on BCA’s OSD Manoj Kumar by those involved in the fake team. The miscreants have been identified and action will be taken against them,” the statement read.
Speaking about the match Mumbai finished the opening day with 235 for nine, where three batters – opener Bhupen Lalwani, Suved Parkar, and Tanush Kotian scored fifties. For Bihar Veer Pratap Singh picked up 4/32 while Sakibul Gani and Himanshu Singh picked one each.
The Ranji Trophy 2024 season kicked off on January 5 with two matches on Friday. The first match between Hyderabad and Nagaland was a Plate Group match and the match between Mumbai and Bihar was a Group B match that got underway on Friday. The final will be played from March 10-14 concluding the campaign.
