Manish Vats/Patna. The teams of Bihar and Mumbai are clashing in Ranji Trophy Elite Group B from January 5 at Moinul Haq Stadium in Patna, the capital of Bihar. Mumbai’s team was already announced for this match, while two teams were announced by two senior officials of Bihar. A day before the match it became clear which team would play against Mumbai. After separation of Jharkhand, politics has dominated cricket in Bihar for the last 23 years. The problem has been stuck for years. Due to board politics, the fate of many promising cricketers was not revealed. This is why the players who were capable got a chance to play from other states. But, the career of many sank even before Ranji.
Kirti Jha Azad, Saba Karim, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Ishan Kishan, Mukesh Kumar, Prithvi Shaw…these are the names associated with the soil of Bihar, who have raised the flag of India in international cricket and are doing so. Most of these were welcomed by the cricket associations of other states. You can be happy just thinking that players like Ishan Kishan, Mukesh Kumar are from our soil.
Bihar team became runner up after 30 years
Bihar team has been playing Ranji since 1936, before independence. Till 1943, Bihar played all the matches against Bengal only. Before the formation of Jharkhand team, Bihar team played 236 first-class matches from 1936-37 to 2003-04. In which 78 were won and 56 were lost. Whereas, 102 matches were drawn. For the first time, Bihar team reached the final in 1975-76. Daljit Singh was then the captain of Bihar Ranji team. He was a wicketkeeper batsman. Daljit Singh has also been the chairman of the pitch committee of BCCI. He has also trained Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad and Jagawal Srinath.
The first Ranji match took place here in Bihar
Bihar hosted the first Ranji match 65 years ago in the year 1958. Then there was Bengal team in front of Bihar. In this match, Bengal team defeated Bihar by an innings and 26 runs. This match was played in the historic Gandhi Maidan of Patna in January. At that time there was no idol of Bapu there. A boundary of 65 yards was made by placing flags all around the middle of the field. People watched the match sitting on the side of the field. Next year, Ranji match was held again at Gandhi Maidan. But, this time Bihar defeated Odisha by eight wickets. After this, Ranji matches were never organized here again, because Moinul Haq Stadium was built in 1968. From then till now Ranji matches are being held in Moinul Haq Stadium only.
Bihar’s powerful batsman making his Ranji debut at a younger age than Sachin, scoring runs and knocking on the doors of Team India
Dhoni scored his first century while playing for Bihar
Very few people know that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the captain of the 2011 World Cup winning team, started his Ranji career with the Bihar team. He played 23 matches for Bihar. When Dhoni started playing Ranji in 1999, Bihar had been divided and he had gone to Jharkhand. However, from then till the 2003-04 season, the Jharkhand team played in the name of Bihar. Dhoni was a part of that team.
These are the 15 players of Bihar Ranji team, captain Ashutosh Aman takes 6 wickets in every match.
In the year 2000, Dhoni scored the first unbeaten century (114 runs) of his Ranji career for Bihar against the Bengal team in Kolkata. In 2005, BCCI gave full recognition to Jharkhand, bypassing Bihar, so he started playing for his state team.
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FIRST PUBLISHED: January 5, 2024, 12:35 IST