Even in the early nineties, the Bengal junior teams rated the Biharis highly. If they couldn’t compete, they often complained about the Bihar team players being over-age. That was a phase in Indian cricket when players from Bihar were well-respected and from the time they lost out on hosting a state team in all domestic competitions, the state became redundant.
A few could get selected from Bihar into the Jharkhand team. But now that Bihar has a full-fledged state team – thanks to Aditya Verma, who fought a lone battle to bring back domestic cricket – there aren’t many Bihar cricketers in the proposed T20 league. Instead, there are established players like Ishan Kishan, Sourabh Tiwary, Kumar Kusgra, Anukul Roy, Varun Aaron and Utkarsh Singh – who are from Jharkhand and find themselves in the marquee list of players.
Players like Sakibul Gani, Bipin Saurabh, Veer Pratap Singh and Malay Raj are some of the Bihar players who could have been included in the marquee list. But they aren’t there. On the contrary, the Jharkhand players figure in the brochure printed by the Bihar cricket body.
Seeing this anomaly, Verma said that it isn’t right to advertise and ignore the Bihari cricketer in such a way. “The Supreme Court order clearly says that the state league can’t be played from other states, why is this happening here?” Verma asked.
“These Bihari cricketers aren’t Pakistanis that they would be ignored like this. I have requested BCCI secretary Jay Shah to look into this immediately. There is no Bihari player in the marquee list, which is why it can’t be called a Bihar cricket league,” Verma said while adding that BCCI surprisingly has said “yes” to the league.
Incidentally, Verma claimed that the Bihar cricket body has conducted a T20 league earlier also without having requisite approval from BCCI. “In one month, Bihar Cricket Association has committed two hideous crimes. One was taking out money without a legal approval in absence of the treasurer and now conducting a league without Bihar players in the marquee list,” Verma added.
Seeing this anomaly, Verma said that it isn’t right to advertise and ignore the Bihari cricketer in such a way. “The Supreme Court order clearly says that the state league can’t be played from other states, why is this happening here?” Verma asked.