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Wriddhiman Saha on Saturday received the No objection Certificate (NOC) from the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB). Saha ends a 15-year run with his home state as he made his debut in 2007 against Hyderabad. This decision comes after Saha’s controversy with the CAB. The state cricket board released a statement addressing the issue.
“Mr Wriddhiman Saha came to CAB and in an application to President Avishek Dalmiya sought the NOC from the association. CAB gave concurrence to the request of Mr Saha and provided the NOC to him for playing for another state,” the statement said. “CAB also wished him the very best for his future endeavours.”
The prospect of Saha staying in the Eastern part of India and joining Tripura was making rounds in the domestic circuit for some time and soon the Tripura Cricket Association said that the Gujarat Titans star will be the mentor-cum-captain of the team. TCA’s Kishore Das talked about Saha’s acquisition to Cricbuzz and said, ‘We (both TCA and Saha) have come to an agreement, in principle, on this matter.”
“The details will be finalised next week when he comes to Agartala. Yesterday (Friday, July 1) we had an Apex Council meeting and the members had a video-conferencing with him. The association is unanimous that Saha will be a good pick as a professional for the state. It will be the 35th year in our Ranji Trophy. We have not had a player from Tripura in the Indian team. That is our main target apart from doing well," said Das.
The friction between the two entities started when Saha had made himself unavailable for the group phase of the Ranji Trophy in February. It was learnt that Saha has also left the Bengal Ranji team WhatsApp group.
Addressing the issue, CAB president Avishek Dalmiya talked about the issue. CAB released a statement that said, “The Cricket Association of Bengal wanted Wriddhiman Saha to play for Bengal at this crucial juncture, especially when Bengal would be fighting in the knockout stage in a bid to win the Ranji Trophy after becoming the top-ranked team in the country at the end of the group stage. I had expressed this to Wriddhiman and requested him to reconsider his decision. However, Wriddhiman has now communicated to us that he is not willing to play the Ranji Trophy knockouts.”