Ranji Trophy: Bengal captain Manoj Tiwary 'absolutely frustrated' with current state of premier First-Class competition

India and Bengal batter Manoj Tiwary went into an explosive tirade on social media on Saturday regarding the current state of the Ranji Trophy, the country’s premier domestic cricketing competition, calling for it to be “scrapped off from the calendar” from the next season.

Tiwary, who reversed his decision to retire from all forms of the sport last year to lead Bengal for one more season, expressed his frustration over the Ranji Trophy “losing its charm and importance” and added that a lot needed to be done in order to save the tournament.

“Ranji trophy should be scrapped off from the calendar from the next season onwards. So many things going wrong in the tournament. So many things need to looked into in order to save this prestigious tournament which has a rich history. It’s losing its charm and importance. Absolutely frustrated,” Tiwary, who has scored more than 10,000 First-Class runs in a career spanning two decades, wrote on X.

It is not immediately clear as to what the former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter was alluding to in his post, whether it was a jibe at the manner in which the tournament that is one of the oldest First-Class competitions in the world is conducted or not.

Besides a 20-year run in domestic cricket, Tiwary was briefly part of the Indian team as well, representing the Men in Blue in 12 ODIs and three T20Is between 2008 and 2015 during MS Dhoni’s reign as captain.

Tiwary has been part of four different franchises in the Indian Premier League and was part of the Gautam Gambhir-led KKR that won the first of its two titles in 2012. His last appearance in the IPL was against Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings in 2018, his only season with the Punjab Kings (then Kings XI Punjab).

Tiwary is also an active politician, having joined the Trinamool Congress Party in West Bengal and currently serves as the Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports.