History
The Calcutta Cricket Club was founded in 1792 with membership restricted to Europeans.[2][3] The team's earliest known match was reported 23 February 1792 in the Madras Courier, Calcutta playing a team from Barrackpore and Dumdum.[4] Eden Gardens was established as the club's home stadium in 1864. It had been a park called Auckland Circus Gardens, named after George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, who was the Governor-General of India from 1836 to 1842. It was renamed Eden Gardens in 1841, in honour of Auckland's two sisters.[4][5][6]
For the first time, a team representing Bengal was formed in December 1889 for a match against an English touring team at Eden Gardens.[4] At that time, no native Bengalis were involved and the team, captained by British Army officer Cleveland Greenway, was composed of European colonials who were mostly British expatriates. Bengal lost the match, played over the New Year period, by an innings and 17 runs.[7] In January 1923, a Bengal team took part in the Nagpur Provincial Tournament and, having defeated a Central Provinces XI in their semi-final, lost the final against Bombay. The Bengal team in this competition included a couple of native players but, as before, it was principally a colonial enterprise.[8] The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) was founded in 1928 and has governance of all cricket in West Bengal, including management of the Bengal team.[9]
In 1934, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) organised the Ranji Trophy but Bengal did not take part in 1934–35. Bengal achieved first-class status in December 1935 when they played the Australian tourists. Bengal were captained by Alec Hosie and the team included Shute Banerjee. Although the Australian team on that tour was a mixed bag of veterans and fringe players, they easily defeated Bengal by 9 wickets.[10][11]
In January 1936, Bengal joined the Ranji Trophy, playing in the East Zone, and reached the semi-final where they lost to Madras. In 1936–37, Bengal were runners-up to Nawanagar. Two years later, in 1938–39, Bengal won the Ranji for the first time when they defeated Southern Punjab in the final.[12] Throughout this period, Bengal was essentially a West Bengal team. They were based in Calcutta and played all their matches at Eden Gardens. The earliest match of note in Dhaka was in February 1941 when a Bengal Governor's XI played the Bengal Gymkhana at the Bangabandhu National Stadium, then called the Dacca Stadium.[13] Following Partition of India in 1947, Bengal was split into West (India) and East (then Pakistan, now Bangladesh).
Bengal won their second Ranji Trophy in 1989–90 when they defeated Delhi in the final.[14] To 2023, In addition to their two titles, Bengal have been runners-up 13 times, most recently in 2022–23, and only Bombay/Mumbai have appeared in more finals.[15]
Having won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2011, Bengal won the Vijay Hazare Trophy in 2012. Playing under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, they defeated Mumbai in the final at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground, Delhi on 12 March 2012.[16]
Author Mihir Bose, writing in 1990, commented that cricket's first secure foothold in India was Calcutta Cricket Club, founded 1792 and only five years younger than Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Despite continuing enthusiasm for the sport in Bengal, it is overshadowed by Mumbai as "the centre for Indian cricket".[17] Bose describes Eden Gardens as "one of the great Test match centres of the world", but he laments the relative lack of Bengali Test players saying that only "a handful" has played Test cricket.[17]
To the end of 2023, Bengal have played in a total of 450 first-class matches, 446 of them in the Ranji Trophy. The exceptions are the team's inaugural first-class match against the 1935/36 Australians; Marylebone Cricket Club in December 1951; the Commonwealth XI in December 1953; and the 1990/91 Irani Cup against Rest of India.[18]
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