The Indian wicketkeeper-batter has had his move to Tripura made official by the TCA regime.
India’s veteran wicketkeeper-batter Wriddhiman Saha’s long-anticipated switch to the Tripura state cricket team has been confirmed. The Bengal stalwart will turn up for the North-Eastern rivals from the next Indian domestic season after finding NOC to leave from Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB).
Tripura Cricket Association (TCA) joint-secretary Kishore Das told PTI that Saha will be joining the state team as a player-cum-mentor after extensive discussions between the two parties led to a fruitful output.
Das also confirmed that the 37-year-old cricketer will be signing an official agreement with TCA on July 15, declaring his availability and commitment to a new side at the domestic level from the forthcoming winter.
It isn’t yet clear, though, for how long will Wriddhiman Saha’s contract bind him to Tripura in playing capacity.
Wriddhiman Saha set to play Ranji Trophy for Tripura
In a player-cum-mentor capacity, Wriddhiman Saha will be playing the Ranji Trophy and the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Tripura. Chances are that the cricketer will be giving Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 a miss, allowing young players in the state to gain critical experience playing the senior domestic game.
There were speculations that Saha may get appointed captain of Tripura for the 2022-23 season but Das said nothing has been finalised on that front yet. The TCA joint-secretary added, however, that Saha’s mere presence in the camp will be a significant boost for the players part of the set-up as he brings with him experience of playing 40 Tests and 122 first-class matches.
Saha’s Tripura move had been set in stone since March when, after being left out of the Indian Test squad, he also opted out of the Ranji league matches for Bengal. At the time, the cricketer cited “personal reasons” for skipping the matches but the CAB joint secretary Debabrata Das made allegations of a non-committal attitude on him, stating Saha is making “all sorts of excuses” to avoid Ranji matches.
Baffled by such a claim on his professionalism, Saha demanded an unconditional apology from the CAB regime. That apology didn’t come, although CAB claimed their discussions with the player have restored parity between the two parties and Saha was picked for the Ranji knock-outs in June.
But the player said he hadn’t been kept in loop at all about his reinclusion into the side, which led to a further downturn in their relationship, ultimately forcing Saha to seek an NOC out of the Bengal set-up.
