I don’t want to get into Pragyan Ojha controversy: Manoj Tiwary

Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary has expressed that he doesn’t want to get into the controversy surrounding Pragyan Ojha. It has been reported that the left-arm spinner is miffed with the fact that the president of Cricket Association of Bengal refused him to provide the No Objection Certificate (NOC) in order to return to Hyderabad. However, Tiwary has insisted that he would like to concentrate more on getting the best out of the players rather than speaking on the player who is unavailable.

The angry spinner, who was reported for suspect action a few seasons back, has been miffed. Neither did he report to the Bengal pre-season camp nor was he reachable when the state selectors tried to get in touch with him. Ojha now has been dropped from the Ranji squad as he did not respond to the CAB in time. Ranji Trophy is all set to begin from Saturday as Bengal will take on Services in their opening encounter.

I have more responsibility

Manoj Tiwary cleared that he was not in any contact with Ojha in the recent past and also claimed that he does not look into selection matters. “Look, I have not had any contact with Pragyan Ojha for quite some time now. I have no updates on what he is up to. Also, selection matters are not my domain. I have a bigger job in hand, to ensure that Bengal does well this time,” he told PTI after the training session on Wednesday.

He also refused to make any comments on the state association providing the left-arm spinner with NOC. “You are asking the question to a wrong person. I am not a decision-making authority. Moreover, I have the responsibility of running the team smoothly and my concern cannot be about any particular individual. There are two sides to a story and I do not know any of the sides. So it will be very unfair on my part to make any comments,” Tiwary said staying away from any controversy ahead of an important season for his side.