President of the Bihar Cricket Association Rakesh Tiwary has addressed the controversy involving two teams that attended the match against Mumbai. He claimed that the opposing group wanted to include its children in the Ranji Trophy team.

The opening encounter of the Ranji Trophy season 2023-24 between last season’s Plate Group winners Bihar and Mumbai began on January 5, with lots of drama. Two Bihar teams arrived at the stadium gates, holding team papers. The BCA head approved one squad, while a person claiming to be the secretary approved the other.

Speaking exclusively to IANS, BCA chief Rakesh Tiwary stated that a few people sought to cause trouble in order to get their children into the team and that they reportedly wanted to destroy Bihar Cricket’s image.

“There was nothing like two teams, there were some people who liked to create a nuisance and their only aim was to bring their children into the team. But we cannot compromise on merit and when those people didn’t get a chance to exploit their power, they brought another team to create unrest in the Bihar Cricket Association. They wanted to tarnish the image of Bihar Cricket.”

“Bihar Cricket Association was recognized in 2018 after a Supreme Court decision and BCCI started assisting financially. After the separation of Bihar and Jharkhand, Bihar Cricket Association became Jharkhand Cricket Association and the State of Bihar was left with no association.”

“In Bihar, people then started creating three or four associations and started fighting with each other to get recognition. Following the formation of the Bihar Cricket Association, they started fighting for recognition. Then I became the chairman, took everything in my hands, and vowed to take Bihar Cricket to greater heights.”

, “When I became the chairman there was not even an office of the Bihar Cricket Association, today there is an office, and everyone works very hard here. Each wing has a GM and Lokpal and the anti-corruption wing is also there.”

“The biggest win for us is that now players from Bihar are being selected in the IPL. This time one player has been selected and he comes from a very humble background. Vaibhav Suryavanshi the young cricketer is also from our state (Bihar’s Vaibhav Suryavanshi has made his Ranji Trophy debut against Mumbai at the age of 13).”

Rakesh Tiwary went on to thank  BCCI for their continuous support and revealed that they were able to generate revenue only due to the support of the BCCI.

“BCCI wholeheartedly supports Bihar Cricket, whatever we are doing right now is all because of the support provided by BCCI. We have no medium of revenue generation at present, so whatever we are doing is because of the BCCI.”

Earlier, Tiwary has already been accused of tampering with team selection and affecting election results. In 2019, the BCCI’s Committee of Administrators created a three-member Independent Supervisory Committee to oversee the BCA, which included Alok Kumar, Alwin Gaekwad, and Sandeep Wagle.