Bihar cricket: Factionalism rears ugly head again

Factionalism is nothing new to Bihar cricket and the ugly infighting that has been running well over two decades has robbed the state of some notable talents, besides attracting the ire of the BCCI.

Bihar has already lost the services of Ishan Kishan, who was born and raised in Patna, and pacer Mukesh Kumar, who hails from Gopalganj, to Jharkhand and Bengal respectively.

They had to leave the homeland to pursue a cricketing career in a much more sustainable environment.

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.