Bihar captain Ashutosh Aman had played professional cricket in the Indian domestic circuit even before joining the Bihar team. He represented the Services team in two List A games. As opportunities were very few and took a long time to come by, he turned Pro and switched sides from Services to his home state Bihar, when the state finally got the opportunity to play First Class Cricket once again in 2018-19.
Bihar Cricket Association (BCA) the parent body running cricket in Bihar is a mess that is indescribable. It is so messy that it hasn’t been able to conduct a free and fair election since the start of its proceedings in 2018-19 and has changed the President and Secretary a lot many times in these two years.
The problem has deepened so much that the two warring factions of the BCA, one controlled by the Secretary and one by the President selected two different teams of Bihar for the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. The embarrassment was published all over the media. Later BCCI intervened to solve the matter.
Asked to comment, Aman had his reservations about speaking on the issue. He said, “I will say as much that we should all be together and play in a manner that is beneficial for the state as a whole.” He held on to the respect for the association, but couldn’t ignore the neglect of authorities on the facilities provided to players.
His struggle is not limited only to administration but involves the lack of resources too.
Talking about the problems faced by the players at the grassroots level he said, “The biggest problem at the grassroots is the non-availability of grounds in Bihar.” Pointing towards the pitch of the ground, on the boundary lines of which this interview was taking place, he said, “We have only this ground in Bihar which is at par with other states. And we have 38 district teams. Imagine what they must be playing on!”
“I come from Gaya and the matches there are also played on disappointingly bad grounds. People can get injured any time,” he added emancipating the plight of the players. “The other ground at par with this one is of the Urja Stadium. But to practice or play there the association has to pay them,” he said.
I tried to enquire if another ground in the vicinity of the capital, the Jagjivan Stadium of the Railways was worth a try. Answering the query he said, “The Jagjivan Stadium in Danapur isn’t that good. So all in all, we have this single ground. Although now Devi Bhaiya (Bihar Cricket Association’s official curator Devi Dayal) has prepared another good ground in Bhagalpur, it’s utility is still limited.”
Since he has played in two very different setups of Services- the all disciplined life and Bihar, where there might be anything but discipline among the administrators, Aman says that coping up to the changing environment is a tiring job, but he is not shy of taking it upon himself to change things.
“Services have been playing Ranji Trophy for quite some time now. So there is infrastructure, professionalism. On the other hand, Bihar was reinstated only two years ago. The boys here are playing competitive cricket just now. So in time, things would improve. And I have started inculcating the spirit of cricket and the most important aspect of any sport, DISCIPLINE.”
*This story is the second part of a three-part interview of Bihar cricket captain Ashutosh Aman. The other two parts can be read here:
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