Manoj Tiwary reverses retirement decision, will play on with Bengal for one more year
Just five days after announcing his retirement from all forms of cricket on social media, Manoj Tiwary has reversed his decision, saying that the original decision had been an “emotional” one, and that he will “come out of retirement and play for Bengal for one more year”.Seated with Cricket Association of Bengal president Snehasish Ganguly at a press meet at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Tuesday, Tiwary said, “Raj [Ganguly] convinced me to continue playing [in the Ranji Trophy] for one more year and I should leave while on the field. So I thought about it. I spoke to my wife, and she convinced me too.”She reminded me that I was the captain when Bengal reached the Ranji Trophy final last year. And then Raj spoke to me, I thought about it and decided to come back. A lot of fans also wrote to me and asked me to reconsider my decision.”There was no proper reason for the retirement announcement, Tiwary said, adding that it had been made when he “had gone blank”.
“The reason was… I am an emotional person – some of you might be able to relate to this – a phase comes when things go blank, and people make decisions in haste. I did too,” Tiwary, also a state-level minister in West Bengal, said. “Then I realised that it was a mistake. So I am coming out of retirement for one last year.”Bengal cricket has given me everything, so I want to give Bengal one more year, I want to give Bengal one more try. When I make the announcement next year, there won’t be a U-turn. I was a little selfish in making the decision. It was an emotional decision. But I realised that it was not a collective [for the team] decision.”Tiwary, who hasn’t played a white-ball game for Bengal since November 2022, confirmed that he would only be available for first-class matches for the 2023-24 season.He has so far played 141 first-class matches, and is just 92 runs short of 10,000 runs in the format, his 9908 runs coming at an average of 48.56 with 29 centuries and 45 half-centuries. Internationally, he appeared in 12 ODIs and three T20Is between 2008 and 2015.