Bihar needs to rise above petty politics
Banished from mainstream cricket for 15 years, state needs to put cricket on top of agenda
MUMBAI: No doubt, the 21st century has been the best time to be an Indian cricketer. It is the period when cricketers in the country have been financially more secure than they ever have been.
However, for Bihar, the 21st century has been the worst period in its cricketing history. The state was bifurcated with Jharkhand coming into existence on November 15, 2000. Three years later, the new state replaced Bihar in Ranji Trophy. With that, cricket’s development got asphyxiated in the parent state.
A number of budding and senior cricketers from Bihar suddenly found themselves at the dead end. Some left the game while others continued to play it with no future. A few lucky ones like Ishan Kishan, who represents Jharkhand and led India at the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh in 2016 besides appearing in the IPL, tasted success as well, but such cases remained far and few between.
“Bihar has suffered great losses. Many senior players retired because they had no future. It’s been a depressive phase,” said Amikar Dayal, a Biharborn Ranji cricketer who represented Tripura in 25 first-class matches.
“Bihar has a rich history in cricket. We always had a competitive bunch of cricketers. In our times, we produced some very talented players like Avinash Kumar and Saba Karim (who went on to represent Bengal). Whenever our state played teams like Bombay and Delhi in Ranji Trophy, they gave us respect. Everything came crashing down after we were stopped from taking part in domestic tournaments in 2003,” Dayal recalled.
POLITICAL CONFLICTS
Once Jharkhand was separated, cricket in Bihar also found itself involved in the kind of power tussle seen in the state’s politics. It started with former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav forming the Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) in Patna in 2001 in response to the creation of the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) the same year. Much to Yadav’s dismay, though, the then BCCI president Jagmohan Dalmiya gave recognition to the JCA while withdrawing BCA’S affiliation.
It began a period of conflict between Bihar cricket officials and the BCCI. While the BCA officials demanded affiliation stating they were the parent body, the BCCI kept ignoring it. Though after five years of confrontation, the BCCI finally gave associate membership to the BCA, the Bharatiya Janata Partyjanata Dal (United) coalition government led by Nitish Kumar cancelled it before long.
The political slugfest to take control of Bihar’s cricket continued with former cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad starting a new cricket association called Association of Bihar Cricket (ABC) to counter Lalu’s BCA.
Later, a third association called Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) came to the fore as well with Shekhar Sinha as its chief and Aditya Verma as secretary. While all of these things were happening, cricket-related activities came to a virtual standstill in the state. Dayal, who kept working with young cricketers in Patna, said the state was let down by its political leaders who didn’t rise above personal interests to work for the welfare of the game.
“Whenever we attended the AGM (Annual General Meeting) of the BCCI, we got support from other states. It always felt like we would be able to make a comeback to domestic cricket soon. But, sadly this didn’t happen because there was no political will. Everyone was doing politics for their own gains. In the end, the worst sufferers were our cricketers,” the 51-yearold said.
A NEW HOPE
The 15-year-long exile of Bihar is finally over with the Supreme Court this year ordering the BCCI to allow Bihar to play Ranji Trophy and other domestic cricket tournaments.
Bihar’s return to domestic fold has
breathed new life in the cricket fraternity of the state. A number of new cricket academies have come up in the last three-four months in Patna. Recently during a registration camp organised in Patna’s famous Moin-ulhaq stadium, which has hosted three ODI matches including a Kenya-zimbabwe game in the 1996 World Cup, a number of male and female cricketers of all age groups came to complete the formalities to become eligible to play for their state.
Former Zimbabwe captain Tatenda Taibu, who recently visited Patna to inaugurate a cricket academy, appeared quite impressed with the talent pool of the state. “Some of these kids are really talented. In the next 10 to 15 years, I’m sure Bihar will be a force to reckon with in India. It’s a developing state but has a great talent pool at its disposal.,” said the former wicketkeeperbatsman, who represented his country in 28 Tests and 150 ODIS.
For all the euphoria surrounding the state’s return to domestic fold, there are challenges galore to keep the development of cricket on track in the coming years. “We lack infrastructure. We need to build good stadiums across the state. We also need to revive inter-school and inter-college tournaments for majority of talents come from these competitions,” said Vijay Narayan Chunnu, who has been organising ‘All-india Sukhdeo Narain Memorial Inter-school Cricket Tournament’ in Patna for the last 33 years.
Transparency in selection process and administration is another thing that needs to be looked into. As seen in the performance of the team in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, where they reached the quarter-finals, there’s great optimism in Bihar’s cricket fraternity because they know they won’t be short of opportunities now.