kolkata i am still minister of state for sports bengal captain manoj tiwary declared with a smile as he rushed to attend his senior in the ministry aroop biswas during a visit to the eden gardens on the eve of the ranji final against saurashtra on wednesdayit has been a rollercoaster ride for the 37yearold tiwary who was clueless about his career when his knees gave up and the whole world came under the grip of covid19 pandemic just after bengal lost in the ranji final against saurashtra in 2020with the pandemic disrupting the sporting calendar tiwary battling issues in both knees found his career at the crossroads when he got an offer from the west bengal chief minister mamata banerjee to join trinamool congress ahead of the 2021 assembly pollshe readily took up the offer won shibpur constituency in howrah district and succeeded his senior bengal teammate laxmi ratan shukla as the minister of state for sportstwo years down the line tiwary 20 is back as captain reuniting with shukla who is now bengal head coach the duo conjured up a winning mantra to take bengal to the brink of a third title and their first since 198990i joined politics during a time when nobody was sure of when the ranji trophy was going to happen again both my knees had given up because of cartilage issues so india comeback was not realistic tiwary recalled the covid19 days in an interaction with ptiit was in the buildup to the 201920 season india prospect abhimanyu easwaran took over the charge of captaincy from tiwaryi always supported him as a player but somewhere down the line i still had the thirst to win the title for bengal said tiwary who has been part of bengals three losses in ranji finals in 2006 2007 and 2020as abhimanyu was busy with national commitments tiwary was reappointed the skipper and with shukla they began their second inningsi requested our honourable chief minister mamata banerjee to let me play cricket and she obliged and my senior sports minister aroop biswas also encouraged me not to give up cricket and go out there and play along with your constituency workthus began a tough terrain for tiwary whose day starts at the crack of the dawn with signing the files and hearing grievances of the people of his constituency before padding up for bengalobviously it is not easy to manage both the things its just about the mindset will power and how you want to manage your daily routine its all about time management and you get very less time to sleepi have to do a lot of work as well after going back home have to recover my body and then look at the filesbut with bengal doing well under tiwary even the people of his constituency have realised the importance of leaving him stressfreeeven people in my constituency understand how important winning a ranji trophy for the state is its not just for me but