Chaos erupted at Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna on Friday, after two teams claiming to be Bihar’s Ranji Trophy squad reached the stadium for a match against Mumbai. The development led to a confrontation between the senior officials of the Bihar Cricket Association (BCA), who chose different teams. After a heated exchange and intervention of the local police, the team chosen by BCA President Rakesh Tiwary played the much-delayed match.
Rakesh Tiwary said that he had suspended BCA secretary Amit Kumar for creating a ruckus before the match which led to all the confusion. The secretary continued the defiant tone and claimed that the President of the cricket body doesn’t have the authority to select the final team.
“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,” BCA President Rakesh Tiwary while speaking to news platform TheIndianExpress.
“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,” countered Secretary Amit Kumar.
Social media frenzy over condition of stadium
Apart from the unprecedented chaos over claims of the “fake” team, questions were also raised about the condition of the stadium. The social media remained abuzz with the videos of the stadium, where the viewers didn’t even have a proper place to sit. The people asked that how a prestigious Ranji Trophy match could be organized at a stadium with precarious conditions.