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Bengal’s sports minister Manoj Tiwary to captain East Zone in Duleep trophy, Virat named as vice-captain

Manoj Tiwary has continued with his career in domestic cricket despite becoming an MLA

Manoj Tiwary, the minister of state for Sports and youth affairs in the Bengal cabinet, will be captaining the East Zone side that was announced yesterday to participate in the upcoming Duleep trophy. The East Zone squad has players from Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Assam, Tripura, and Odisha.

While the squad is generally dominated by the players from Bengal, as 7 cricketers from the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) have been picked in the team, the Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) also has 4 of their players in the squad. Jharkhand’s left-handed middle-order batsman Virat Singh has been named Manoj Tiwary’s deputy for the Duleep trophy.

Riyan Parag, the young swashbuckling batsman from Rajasthan Royals, who plays for Assam Cricket Association (ACA) in domestic cricket, is also one of the two Assam players who have made their way to the East Zone squad.

Apart from Manoj Tiwary, another domestic cricket veteran, whom the East Zone selectors have picked, is the Jharkhand left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem. However, it will be interesting to see if Nadeem finds a place in the playing XI because Shahbaz Ahmed, the young left-arm spinner from Bengal, is also in the squad.

Manoj Tiwary became an MLA for the first time in previous Bengal Assembly elections

As far as Manoj Tiwary’s political career is concerned, it only started before the last Bengal Assembly elections. Manoj won as an MLA contesting as a candidate for Trinamool Congress Party (TMC) and he was later also given a post in the Bengal cabinet.

However, despite becoming a minister, Manoj Tiwary has continued with his career in domestic cricket and he played for Bengal in the last season of the Ranji trophy as well. Manoj had even signed up for the previous IPL mega auction, but his services weren’t sought by any of the 10 IPL franchises.

Manoj Tiwary has represented the Indian cricket team in white ball cricket, but he never got the chance to play a test match for India.

Abhishek

I write a bit on cricket and I am more interested in technical and tactical side of the game, rather than bravado.
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