Kolkatta, 7/9: After incessant rains for over a month that threatened to throw a spanner in the plans of CAB, the second edition of Bengal T20 Challenge finally gets underway on September 7 with 33 rollicking T20 games in store over the next 17 days with a glittering trophy at stake.
The main sponsor of the Tournament this time is Byju’s powered by Fancode. This means all the matches will be streamed live on Fancode that has a registered 20 million viewers.
However, much more is at stake in this tournament. While the CAB think tank led by President Avishek Dalmiya and Secretary Snehasish Ganguly has made it an all CAB-Team affair, they also ensured that all age-group cricketers from U19 stage to the Senior Bengal, who had the performance to back their names, found a place in the list of 120 players selected for the draft pick.
The draft rules also had some small but significant changes. CAB made it mandatory that all players picked by the teams will have to play two matches each and each team needed to have at least one U19 and two U25 players. CAB named the teams after six cities/towns spread across Bengal and ensured that at least two players were picked from the catchment areas thus ensuring that picks from the districts also.
The Eden gardens look lush green and the wickets looked hard and suitable for the shortest format of the game. This tournament will also give the boys some competitive cricket ahead of the BCCI domestic season. This is also the first time ever that local cricket calendar began for CAB in September thanks to some meticulous planning and execution by the CAB office bearers and different committee members. The tournament will be played maintaining all Covid rules and protocols.
The Six Teams:
Kanchenjunga Warriors: Bengal skipper Anustup Majumdar is the captain of Kanchenjunga Warriors and will be leading the likes of Sumanta Gupta, Sayan Sekhar Mondal, Bapi Manna, Nilkantha Das in the tournament. This team also has some exciting young talents like Sudip Gharami, Subham Sarkar and Ayush Kumar who can play crucial roles for their teams. With fine balance and a shrewd skipper they could prove to be a handful. Abdul Monayem as coach and S S Paul as mentor gives the side its strength to strategize.
Kolkata Heroes: Led by former Bengal U23 skipper Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, the team has a number of promising U19 players in Toufiq Uddin Mondal, Debopratim Halder along with the likes of Karan Lal, Ranjot Singh Khaira and Ramesh Prasad who will try to carry on their good performances like last season. A wily cricketer himself in his time coach Shiv Sagar Singh will give the team its planning power, while mentor Sourasish Lahiri could be the X-factor.
Durgapur Dazzlers: Under the captaincy of another seasoned Bengal campaigner Abhishek Raman, this team can certainly pose a threat to their opponents thanks to their batters Abhishek Das, Subham Chatterjee, all-rounders Sandipan Das and Writtick Chatterjee. Apart from the experienced bowlers like Sayan Ghosh, Ravi Kant Singh and Aritra Chatterjee, young players Shakir Habib Gandhi, Arka Sarkar will be the ones to watch out for. Coach Sanjib Goel and mentor Utpal Chatterjee lends solidity to the think tank.
Krishnanagar Challengers: Led by the street smart skipper and senior Bengal all-rounder Arnab Nandi, this side could be a game changer any day of the week. Having the likes of Kanishk Seth, Koushik Ghosh, Agniv Pan, Sreyan Chakraborty and Azaz Ansari in the team along with young players like Golam Mustafa, Diganta Neogi and Aryaman Singh surely boosts their chances in the campaign. With Sovan Mitra and coach and Indu Bhushan Roy as mentor they look balanced in every department.
Kharagpur Blasters: Young Bengal opener Kazi Junaid Saifi has been given the responsibility to lead Kharagpur Blasters. All-rounders like Pradipta Pramanik, Prayas Roy Burman, Md Kaif along with experienced campaigners Abhimanyu Easwaran, Gitimoy Basu, Rajkumar Pal will surely make things tough for the opponents. A slew of clever picks from the juniors makes the side youthful and buzzing with energy. And the team will be coached by Satinder Singh, while the presence of Laxmi ratan Shukla as mentor could prove to be the X-factor as he brings his indomitable spirit to the team.
Barrackpore Bashers: While classy Bengal bat Sudip Chatterjee will lead this side, seasoned players like Kaif Ahamed, Ankur Pal will provide the team its spark as will all-rounder Sujit Kr Kumar Yadav who is in form since last season. Talented U25 players Ankit Mishra, Vaibhab Yadav and Vikash Singh will also play a key role in the team’s success. Arindam Das as coach adds tremendous value to the side as does the deep insights of Pranab Ropy, who is the mentor of the team.
The match timings are 3 pm and 7 pm every-day, except on the opening day when it will start at 4.30.
This year we have also got a strong support from our sponsors. TCM, Dream 11, Zee Bangla, Adani Group, Xiaomi, ITC have come in to support the meet in a big way. We also have Fairfield Marriott as Hospitality Partner, Woodlands Multispeciality Hospital Limited as Health Partner and Aditya School of Sports as Logistics Partner. CESC, which has promised uninterrupted power supply, has also been a great support to the tournament.
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