Two squads took the field for the Ranji Trophy tie against Mumbai on Friday with one picked by the Bihar Cricket Association president Rakesh Tiwary, while the other team was assembled by secretary Amit Kumar.
Cricket can be a funny game at times and it showed during a Ranji Trophy game between Mumbai and Bihar when the latter announced two squads for the game. Bizarre isn't it? As per a report in The Indian Express, two squads made their way to the Moin-ul-Haq stadium in Patna on Friday, for their Ranji Trophy clash against Mumbai. (More Cricket News)
One of the squads was selected by the Bihar Cricket Association (BHA) president Rakesh Tiwary, whereas the other team was picked by the secretary Amit Kumar. However, after much hullaballoo, Tiwary's team played the game after local police were called in to quieten the situation.
As per the report, not a single cricketer was named in the squad.
“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 Tiwary told Indian Express.
However secretary Amit Kumar rebuked Tiwary's claims and added that the president should not select the team.
“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 told Indian Express.
Here are the two teams that went to the Ranji Trophy match against Mumbai -
President's Team List - Captain: Ashutosh Aman, Himanshu Singh, Ravi Shankar, Rishabh Raj, Navaj Khan, Vipul Krishna, Akash Raj, Baljeet Singh Bihari, Sarman Nigrodh, Veer Pratap Singh, Sakibul Gani (Vice-Captain), Vipin Saurabh (Wicketkeeper), Babul Kumar, Sachin Kumar Singh, Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
Secretary's Team List - Captain: Indrajit Kumar, Shashi Anand, Lakhan Raja, Yashasvi Rishabh, Prateek Kumar, Vikrant Singh, Himanshu Hari, Shashi Shekhar, Vedant Yadav, Abhinav Kumar, Kamalesh Kumar Singh, Vishwajeet Gopala, Prashant Srivastava, Deepak Raja, Apoorv Anand (Vice-Captain), Vikash Ranjan (Wicketkeeper), Shashim Rathore, Samar Kudari, Kumar Mridul, Kumar Rajneesh.