NEW DELHI: For over two decades,
Bihar cricket
has been marred by factionalism and the bitter infighting has cost the state its promising talents and drawn the ire of the
BCCI
.
Ishan Kishan, originally from Patna and Mukesh Kumar, from Gopalganj, were among those who had to leave Bihar to find better opportunities.
Kishan moved to Jharkhand while Mukesh found his path to Bengal as the environment outside Bihar seemed more conducive for their cricketing careers, forcing them to leave their homeland behind.
The latest episode in this unpleasant sequence panned on Friday at Patna when two teams turned up to play the
Ranji Trophy
Elite B group match against Mumbai at the Moin-ul-Haq stadium.
One team was selected by Bihar Cricket Association Secretary Amit Kumar and another outfit came with the blessings of BCA President Rakesh Tiwary.
Eventually, the side that had the backing of Tiwary and captained by veteran left-arm spinner Ashuthosh Aman played the match against the 41-time champions.
"First of all, why should they select the Moin-ul-Haq stadium for this match? There are better facilities at the Urja Stadium in Rajbansi Nagar which is in Patna itself.
"Such episodes will only cause damage to Bihar cricket as we have a lot of talented cricketers,” Aditya Verma, a former BCA official and the original petitioner during the 2013 IPL spot-fixing case, told PTI.
The squabbling in the BCA dates back to 2002 when the BCCI under its then president Jagmohan Dalmiya suspended the association run by former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
The Dalmiya regime gave recognition to the faction led by Amitabh Choudhary, who later rose to become the acting secretary of the BCCI.
In between, the pool turned murkier after former India all-rounder Kirti Azad also formed the Association of Bihar Cricket, while Verma and Prem Ranjan Patel constituted the Cricket Association of Bihar.
"At one time, there were four (cricket) associations in Bihar. What had happened was that the administration went haywire and the money from the BCCI also stopped till the state was reinstated in 2018.
"But in the meantime, the state lost many players to other states. Nobody can blame them as who wants to get caught in this messy situation where a young cricketer needs to bribe the officials to get a chance even in the selection trials," a veteran cricket coach said on condition of anonymity.
Verma concurred. "The administration under Tiwary is an utter failure. They are interested only in politics, and not in cricket. We are trying to take legal recourse and find a way ahead for Bihar cricket, which cannot afford another round of mismanagement," he said.
The veteran coach agreed.
"Several officials join the association only to make money. They are least interested in developing cricket.
"We have given an opportunity to a 12-year-old player (Vaibhav Suryavanshi), and I will not be surprised if he decides to move to another state soon so that he can develop into a better player," he added.
Tiwary, however, remained unfazed.
"We have been democratically elected. The secretary is suspended (by the court), so he cannot select the team. But the state has a lot of talents like Vaibhav and recently one player (Sakib Husain) was picked for the IPL (by KKR).
"We are trying to put up proper infrastructure for the sport. It will take some time, as we have returned only around six years back (to First-Class cricket). I am not really worried about all these allegations, as we have a job at hand,” he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
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