Laloo to contest Bihar
cricket panel elections

Soroor Ahmed in Patna

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Laloo Prasad Yadav will contest elections for the post of Bihar Cricket Association president.

He filed his nomination papers on Wednesday night. The last day for filing nominations for the May 20 elections is May 6.

However, Laloo may face a challenge, as some district cricket associations have reportedly proposed the name of cine star Shatrughan Sinha.

Selecting Laloo as a candidate was a masterstroke of the BCA office-bearers. After the creation of Jharkhand, the BCA got rid of the stranglehold of the 'Jamshedpur lobby'.

In fact, the BCA headquarters in Jamshedpur will now be shifted to Patna. The present BCA president is Sanjay Singh, a general manager, corporate communication, with the Tatas.

Though most players in the last four to five years, who used to represent Bihar, come from the non-Jharkhand belt, it was the Jharkhand, rather the Jamshedpur lobby, which had full control.

The reason was obvious, as cricket used to be promoted from the corporate sector there. There are also over 550 life members, who control the BCA.

Now that the Bihar cricket body is poorer and has been deprived of the Keenan stadium in Jamshedpur, BCA officials deemed it fit to propose Laloo's name.

Besides Keenan stadium of the Tatas, which has seen many international matches, the only other venue for big matches in Bihar is the Moin-ul-Haque stadium in Patna. It has organised two one-dayers [between Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe on November 15, 1993, and Zimbabwe and Kenya during the February 1996 World Cup].

Laloo, till the 1996 World Cup, was not a cricket fan, like Madhavrao Scindia, Suresh Kalmadi or even Sharad Pawar, yet his interest in matters cricket impressed BCA officials as well as both touring teams.

When there was a brief spell of rains, Laloo had summoned a helicopter to hover over the pitch for a few minutes, for it to dry up.

"If so much interest was not taken, Bihar would have lost the opportunity to be considered to host a match of World Cup stature," said Ajay Narain Sharma, a former Ranji player and now a selector.

As Bihar will have to host Ranji Trophy matches regularly, it certainly needs another pitch, apart from Moin-ul-Haque stadium. And Laloo promised on Wednesday night that he would get floodlights installed at the Moin-ul-Haque stadium and also get a couple of more venues developed in the state.