Bengal has included Manoj Tiwary, a sitting minister, into the Ranji Trophy squad for the upcoming season. Tiwary is West Bengal’s Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports.
“I have built a core team that will do the job in my absence in my constituency. My team has the (local Trinamool Congress) block president, women’s wing head, members of our students wing and other experienced political leaders and our work force. So far, we haven’t faced any problem. We have been able to provide services at my constituency,” Tiwary told The Indian Express.
The right-handed batter won from the Shibpur constituency in Howrah in the last Bengal Assembly elections while contesting for Trinamool Congress.
“I never thought about quitting cricket and I discussed it with our chief minister. She told me, ‘No problem, khel na (keep playing)’. This is my profession and passion, which is the reason I didn’t announce my retirement. Whatever I’m today is because of my cricket,” Tiwary said.
Bengal will begin the campaign against Tripura on January 13, 2022.
Squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Manoj Tiwary, Sudip Chatterjee, Anustup Majumdar, Abhishek Raman, Sudip Gharami, Abishek Das, Writtick Chatterjee, Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, Abhishek Porel, Shahbaz Ahmed, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Akash Deep, Ishan Porel, Mukesh Kumar, Kazi Junaid Saifi, Sakir Habib Gandhi, Pradipta Pramanik, Geet Puri, Nilakantha Das and Karan Lal.