Flower and cricket antidote to poison of parochialism, says Manoj Tiwari

Ranchi: Bhojpuri superstar Manoj Tiwari has appealed the people to bring at least one flower on February 24 to greet Veer Maratha team, which will play against Bhojpuri Dabang in Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) here. "I have held (promotional) meetings at Aurangabad, Patna and Chhapra in Bihar and requested the people to come with one flower each to welcome Veer Maratha members in Ranchi," Tiwari told PTI over phone. "Seventy thousand people greeted us during our match against Kerala Strikers at Kochi and we will also greet Veer Maratha team with equal vigour," he said. Tiwari also expects that CCL series could work as a springboard to popularise the rich Bhojpuri art, culture and its sweet dialect. "Bhojpuri is popular in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh and we want to take the rich art and culture across the country," Tiwari said, adding he chose cricket as the medium to popularise Bhojpuri as millions of people follow the game. Tiwari, who led Bhojpuri Dabang to a five-wicket win over Chennai Rhinos, said it took him two years to float the idea of staging CCL and find a sponsor. After crossing swords with Kerala Strikers on February 16, Bhojpuri Dabang will fight it out with Riteish Deshmukh’s Veer Maratha on the cricket ground in Ranchi February 24. All the teams are comprised of stars from their respective film industry. PTI