Bhawanipore have been one of the best teams in Kolkata Club Cricket as they won the Kolkata League three times in the last seven seasons. They have been at the top playing back-to-back finals and semi-finals in the last few seasons. The team that brought success to Bhawanipore Club has now been broken. But, it is still strong. Sportz Point brings you a preview of Bhawanipore Club's squad for the upcoming Kolkata Club Cricket season.

"I have a special bond with this club:" Sandipan Das

Just like last few years, Bhawanipore have again made a solid team to fight for the top spot in the Premier Division tournament in Kolkata. Their captain for the last five years is still there to lead them. Allrounder Sandipan Das yet again will be Bhawanipore's key force in the team with bat and ball. The former U19 World Cup winner has signed for his eighth season for Bhawanipore and admitted that he has a special bond with the club that has made him sign for the club, again. Moreover, he agrees with the fact that every professional player is bound to change teams in their career and it is no strange to him that a successful lot from the team has left.

"I have a special bond with this club. I have been leading this side for the last five years. Yes, professional players will always move on to different clubs at different stages of their careers. But, I feel a special connection with this club," Sandipan Das told Sportz Point.

Read Also: Kolkata Club Cricket Exclusive: Kalighat in a quest for title defence; Anustup rejoins after 14 years

A pull of former Mohun Bagan players sign for Bhawanipore for the upcoming Kolkata Club Cricket season

Players like Abhishek Das, Arka Sarkar, Balkesh Yadav, Amit Santra, Vineet Maurya and Writtick Chatterjee have left the club to join other teams along with their long-time coach Abdul Monayem who was one of the reasons behind the club's success in the last few years. Abdul Monayem said goodbye to Bhawaniprore to wear the red and gold of East Bengal after 14 years. But, another experienced coach Sanjib Goel has come in to replace Monayem. Goel previously coached Mohun Bagan Athletic Club and is regarded as one of the knowledge coaches of Kolkata Maidan.

Interestingly, with Goel, a pull of former Mohun Bagan players signed for Bhawanipore at the Eden Gardens for the upcoming season. Left-arm spinners Raj Kumar Pal, and Tuhin Banerjee, batters Arindam Ghosh, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Prinan Dutta along with all-rounder Subham Sarkar have joined them from Green and Maroon. Captain Sandipan Das believes since these former Mohun Bagan players have played a lot together and understand each other, it will be a lot easier for him as a captain to lead them.

"Yes, obviously it will be easier for me to lead them as they have been playing together a lot. Along with that, they bring a lot of experience as well, which is always a handful to have as the captain of the team," Sandipan added.

Along with them, all-rounder Ritwick Roy Choudhary has joined them from Barisha Sporting Club. Sonu Naubhag and Kiaf Ahmed signed from Tapan Memorial accompanying Saikat Banerjee from Police Athletic Club. Pace bowler Alok Pratap Singh made a return to the club after spending one season with Mohammedan Sporting Club. Left-arm pacer Ravi Kumar will be his partner in crime with the ball in hand.

"It does not matter if I am changing the club since I give my all to every club I am playing for: "Ritwick after joining Bhawanipore Club

Coming from Barisha Sporting Club, Ritwick Roy Choudhary said that he does not feel like coming to a new entity altogether. The all-rounder had already fixed his mind about joining Bhawanipore Club at the end of the last season. As per him, since he gives his everything for any club he plays for, it does not matter that much to him even when he changes the club. The most important thing for him is to enjoy the game and keep performing.

Read Also: Kolkata Club Cricket Exclusive: East Bengal to go with a squad full of all-rounders; a new challenge for coach Monayem

"For me, the two most important things are to enjoy my game and give my all whenever I am playing along with preparing well. So, it does not matter if I am changing the club, since those three things remain the same for me," Ritwick told Sportz Point. Ritwick has also confirmed to Sportz Point that he is fully fit to bowl again and he will always be ready whenever the captain feels like using him.

Even though Bhwanipore were forced to bring some new faces for the upcoming Kolkata Club Cricket season, there are few players who stuck with them this year as well. Bengal all-rounder Pradipta Pramanik and Amir Gani along with Railways batter Vivek Singh will don Bhawanipore's jersey yet again this year.

India A started their England tour on a great note with a solid Day 1 display against the England Lions in Canterbury. Karun Nair headlined the day with a solid, unbeaten 186 with the bat for India A.

England Lions captain James Rew won the toss and decided to bowl first on a greenish pitch at the St. Lawrence Ground. 

India A lost captain Abhimanyu Easwaran early on 8 while Yashasvi Jaiswal went back to the dressing room after adding 24. 

When it looked like that, Rew took the right decision of bowling first, Sarfaraz Khan and Karun Nair put up a 181-run partnership for the third wicket to give India A the advantage after Day 1’s play. 

Karun Nair, who last played a test match in 2017, continued his great form and completed his fifty in 85 balls. 

Soon, Sarfraz Khan, who was dropped from the test squad, completed his fifty in 84 balls as well. When both batters were looking to get to the hundred mark first, Sarfraz was caught down the leg side on 92 off 119 balls and missed his ton.

Sarfaraz Khan gets dismissed 8 short of a well-deserved hundred.

Sarfaraz was looking good but was eventually caught down the leg side on 92.

Karun Nair is batting on 97!

India A 233/3 in the first inning!#ENGAvINDA #SarfarazKhan pic.twitter.com/pY7pCRmwZP

— Sportz Point (@sportz_point) May 30, 2025

Nair, who was dropped on 89 off Ajeet Singh Dale, completed his 24th first-class ton off 155 balls.

Post that, incoming batter Dhruv Jurel and Nair started smashing the bowlers and changed their gears. Nair reached the landmark of 150 in 205 balls while Jurel reached his fifty in just 68 balls.

At the end of Day 1 of the 4-day unofficial test match, Jurel remained unbeaten on 82 off 104 balls while Nair remained unbeaten on 186 from 246 balls, with India A finishing with 409/3. 

The Bengal Pro T20 League, a premier domestic cricket competition in West Bengal, is meant to be a stage for local talent to shine. Launched to nurture and showcase Bengal’s cricketers, the league has been a source of pride for the state’s cricket fans.

However, the recently concluded Season 2 draft has sparked a firestorm of controversy. Reports have surfaced that outstation players—those not originally from West Bengal—are being registered as Bengal players, allegedly through falsified documentation.

This practice has raised serious ethical and legal questions, with fans and critics alike accusing the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) and franchise teams of undermining the spirit of the league. Today, we dive into why this is not just unfair but potentially illegal, and what it means for the future of Bengal cricket.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the India U19 (men's) squad for the upcoming England tour, scheduled from June 24 to July 23, 2025.

This tour will have a 50-over warm-up match, followed by a five-match Youth One-Day series and two Multi-Day matches against England U19.

Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who has already made his name as the youngest ever centurion in IPL history at just 14 years of age, has been picked for the tour. Another IPL star, Ayush Mahtre, who has impressed with his striking abilities for Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2025, has been made the captain of the squad.

Abhigyan Kundu will be Mahtre's deputy for the whole tour. 

Bengal pacer Yudhajit Guha has been named in the squad as well. Guha had earlier featured for the India U19 team in the U-19 Asia Cup as well. 

Read Also | Exclusive: "Do not call him a 'baccha', he will play T20s for India in two years," says Bihar head coach after Vaibhav Suryavanshi's historical IPL ton

India U19 squad for the England tour

India U19 Squad: Ayush Mhatre (Captain), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Vihaan Malhotra, Maulyarajsinh Chavda, Rahul Kumar, Abhigyan Kundu (Vice-Captain & WK), Harvansh Singh (WK), R S Ambrish, Kanishk Chouhan, Khilan Patel, Henil Patel, Yudhajit Guha, Pranav Raghavendra, Mohammed Enaan, Aditya Rana, Anmoljeet Singh

Standby Players: Naman Pushpak, D Deepesh, Vedant Trivedi, Vikalp Tiwari, Alankrith Rapole (WK)

Full Schedule of the tour

In recent years and decades, Bengal cricket has frequently witnessed the emergence of players from outside the region, who quickly become integral to Bengal's cricket scene. This trend was evident during the recently concluded draft for the Men's Bengal Pro T20 League 2025.

It is important to clarify that we are not referring to outstation players, like Rohan Gavaskar and Arun Lal, who came to Bengal from other states and made it their home for cricket.

Instead, we are talking about cricketers from outside West Bengal who are arriving here and illegally obtaining Aadhaar cards and other documents with false addresses.

Fake addresses, corruption and outsiders in Bengal cricket

These players are rapidly rising through the ranks, some based on merit while others without any noteworthy performances, and they are moving on to represent the state at various levels. Furthermore, those who are advancing are bringing more players from their home states to Bengal and creating paths for them.

This situation points to a larger conspiracy involving club officials who are allegedly accepting bribes. Some of these officials are supposedly encouraging players to participate without payment in exchange for assisting them in gaining entry into Bengal under-age teams or even the Bengal Pro T20 League squads.

It's worth noting that platforms like the Bengal Pro T20 League provide players with exposure to IPL scouts and teams, which can significantly boost their careers. Players like Sai Sudharasan, Priyansh Arya, Digvesh Rathi, Vipraj Nigam, and Ashwani Kumar have all emerged from their respective state T20 leagues.

Consequently, these outstation players have come to believe that if they cannot succeed in their own state, they can come to Bengal, create illegal documents, collaborate with certain club officials, and gain access to platforms like the Bengal Pro T20 League.

This situation is depriving talented young cricketers from Bengal, who have been performing well at the club level, of opportunities.

In a recent video, presented in Bengali, Sportz Point addressed these issues, which was well received within the Bengal cricket community. We have translated this information into English to ensure the message reaches a wider audience across the nation.

Siddharth Patidar - supposed to play in both MPT20 League and Bengal Pro T20 League

One such instance is Siddharth Patidar, a player from Madhya Pradesh who has represented MP in the past and participated in the MP T20 League since 2022. He is now claimed to be a local player in Bengal.

Patidar is currently a member of the Jabalpur Royal Lions and will be playing under Saransh Jain in the tournament.

How can a player local to the MP T20 League also be considered a local player in West Bengal? This suggests he was provided with illegal documentation to verify his status as a Bengal domestic player. 

The MP T20 League is set to commence on June 12, and it will be interesting to see how Patidar competes in two different state leagues, claiming residency in both Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.

Patidar was drafted in Srachi Rarh Tigers in Bengal Men's Pro T20 League 2025.

Sandeep Tomar - played in UP T20 League, but has documents of West Bengal

Another player, Sandeep Tomar, known to be from Uttar Pradesh, also appears to possess Bengal documents in his name. Sandeep has previously participated in the UP T20 League as a local player, and last season, he played in the Bengal Pro T20 League as a local player.

This raises the implication that Sandeep, too, has illegally registered as a Bengal player with the Cricket Association of Bengal. 

Not only these two players, but reports indicate that multiple athletes are arriving from various states and illegitimately registering as Bengal players with forged documents. Clearly, such actions cannot occur without the support of officials.

C.A.B.'s efforts to stop this

Recently, the Cricket Association of Bengal announced that from the next season, all players will be required to submit bank documents that are more than three years old, along with their parents' documents, before registering. However, the pressing question remains: If they can not even stop a daylight robbery, will they be able to stop outstation players' entry? Only time will tell.

As a result, many deserving players from Bengal, who have been topping charts in runs, wickets, and trophy wins, have been deprived of the opportunities they rightfully deserve.

Numerous players expressed feelings of frustration, sadness, and hopelessness after the events that unfolded during the draft for the Men's Bengal Pro T20 League.

The Bengal Pro T20 League Season 2 kicked off its preparations with a grand men’s draft ceremony on Monday, where a staggering 802 cricketers were selected by eight franchises at a city hotel on Monday. 

8 franchises, led by their retained players and coaches along with their owners, selected their squads for the upcoming season.

CAB Office bearers led by President Snehasish Ganguly, Vice President Amalendu Biswas, Secretary Naresh Ojha, Treasurer Prabir Chakrabarty, Joint Secretary Debabrata Das along with India cricket legend Sourav Ganguly, women’s cricket icon Jhulan Goswami were present for the draft. 

"I hope you will all witness an exciting draft process in the next few hours. I am sure we will have an even more successful Bengal Pro T20 League season this time," Sourav Ganguly said during the event. 

Read Also | Exclusive: "I would love to see more sixes, more runs," Shreevats Goswami wants bigger scores in Bengal Pro T20 League 2025

A+ category players will get INR 4,75,000, A grade players will get INR 3,75,000, while B and C category players will receive INR 1,50,000. D category players will get INR 1,50,000. 

Full squads of Bengal Pro T20 League 2025 (men's)

Shrachi Rarh Tigers

• Shahbaz Ahmed
• Pradipta Pramanik
• Sumanta Gupta
• Ashutosh Kumar
• Ravi Kumar
• Sayan Shekhar Mondal
• Kazi Junaid Saifi
• Pritam Chakraborty
• Gaurav Singh Chauhan
• Abhishek Das
• Siddharth Patidar
• Abhijeet Bhagat
• Md Shami
• Saikat Das
• Ayan Bhattacharyaa
• Avirup Gupta
• Mayank Jha

Read Also | Exclusive: "Do not call him a 'baccha', he will play T20s for India in two years," says Bihar head coach after Vaibhav Suryavanshi's historical IPL ton

ServoTech Siliguri Strikers

• Akash Deep
• Suraj Singhu Jaiswal
• Vikas Singh
• Tarun Godara
• Ankur Paul
• Subham Chatterjee
• Nuruddin Mondal
• Irshad Alam
• Ankush Tyagi
• Sourav Paul
• Mithilesh Das
• Raju Halder
• Pawan
• Lokesh
• Aditya Singh
• Shivamm Bharati
• Sachin Yadav

Rashmi Medinipur Wizards

• Sudip Chatterjee
• Vivek Singh
• Priyanshu Srivastava
• Vaibhav Yadav
• Ritwik Roy Chowdhury
• Ranjot Singh Khaira
• Rajkumar Pal
• Soumyadip Mandal
• Sandipan Das Jr
• Sourav Halder
• Rahul Kundu
• Akash Ghatak
• Rahul Gupta
• Pankaj Shaw
• Aishik Patel
• Ayush Ghosh
• Jagmohan Prasad Gupta

Read Also | Bengal Pro T20 League Exclusive: 9 cricketers teams should go after, who did not play or got picked last time

Adamas Howrah Warriors

• Aamir Gani
• Kanishk Seth
• Shakir Habib Gandhi
• Pramod Chandila
• Sujit Kumar Yadav
• Saksham Sharma
• Yuvraj Deepak Keswani
• Shreyan Chakrabarty
• Shashank Singh
• Deepak Kumar
• Debangshu Pakhira
• Jayveer Singh
• Rohit
• Sachin Chaudhary
• Arindam Ghosh
• Agniswar Das
• Agastya Shukla

Lux-Shyam Kolkata Royal Tigers

• Abishek Porel
• Karan Lal
• Sayan Ghosh
• Akash Pandey
• Sandeep Kumar Tomar
• Ayush Kumar Singh
• Anurag Tiwari
• Md Kaif
• Sandipan Das
• Debopratim Halder
• Ronit Ghosh
• Vipin Chandra
• Harsh Vardhan Jajodia
• Arjun Kumar
• Sanjib Goswami
• Bhoirob De Sarkar
• Dron Chatterjee

Harbour Diamonds

• Prayas Ray Barman
• Manoj Tiwary
• Badal Singh Balyan
• Subham Sarkar
• Chandrahas Dash
• Vishal Bhati
• Kaushik Maity
• Geet Puri
• Pradeep Kumar
• Priyank Patel
• Abhishek Raman
• Rahul Prasad
• Abhimanyu Easwaran
• Balkesh Yadav
• Prakash Kr Roy
• Kaushik Giri
• Ankit Chatterjee
• Vijay Srivastava

Murshidabad Kings

• Sudip Kumar Gharami
• Agniv Pan
• Sukhmeet Singh
• Vikas Singh
• Toufik Uddin Mondal
• Saksham Chaudhury
• Rishabh Chaudhary
• Dilshad Khan
• Saurabh Kumar Singh
• Aniket Singh
• Tanmoy Pramanick
• Sayed Irfan Aftab
• Priyam Sarkar
• Koushik Ghosh
• Nikhil Singh
• Ankit Chatterjee
• Sayan Paul

Sobisco Smashers Malda

• Mukesh Kumar
• Writtick Chatterjee
• Kaif Ahmed
• Ramesh Prasad
• Akhil
• Shuvam Dey Sr
• Gitimoy Basu
• Brijesh Sharma
• Arjun Bharadwaj
• Avilin Ghosh
• Sumit Mohanta
• Viraj Krishna
• Harsimar Singh Patheja
• V Venkat Raj
• Sk Janishar Akhatar Nishar
• Arjun Singh
• Aditya Roy