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The Ranji Trophy 2023-24 season got off to a bizarre start with two teams representing Bihar arriving at the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium in Patna to face Mumbai. With two teams showing up at the ground, the start of the first day was delayed as the local police had to intervene and halt an altercation that spilt over on the field.
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The match eventually started at 11:00 am and Bihar elected to bowl first. Coming back to the two teams at the Moin-ul-Haq Stadium, one was picked by the BCA president, Rakesh Tiwary, and played the game. While the other team had the secretary Amit Kumar's blessing.
Both, the BCA president and secretary spoke on why their team deserved to play against Mumbai. As quoted by the Indian Express, Rakesh Tiwary spoke about how his team was picked by merit. Tiwary shared that his team has a player picked for the Indian Premier League and a 12-year-old prodigy.
Tiwary said, “We picked the players on merit which 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.”
On the contrary, Secretary Amit challenged Rakesh Tiwary and his suspension claims. The Secretary said, “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.”
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Later after Day 1's play, the Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) released a statement confirming that Secretary Kumar produced a fake team and attacked an official at the stadium entrance. “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 BCA release said.
