Bengal cricket team

Bengal cricket team is considered Eastern India's strongest cricket team, it is the Elite Group of the Ranji Trophy and were runners-up twice consecutively in the 2005-06 and the 2006-07 season. Their ranks are occasionally bolstered by the return of Sourav Ganguly to the domestic competition. Bengal has had two Ranji Trophy victories in its years and has been runners-up a total of 11 times.

Competition history

Bengal's first success came in the third Ranji Trophy season (1936/37), in which it came runners-up to Nawanagar, two years later it beat Southern Punjab in the final of the Ranji Trophy to become the 4th team to hold the title. For the next 51 years it did not manage to hold the Trophy again, until it beat a strong Delhi in the 1990 final. In this time, the Bengal cricket team had come runner-up a total of 7 times, its most recent being in 1989, where it lost to Delhi. The years of the finals losses were quite evenly scattered and the Bengal cricket team never truly was considered a cricketing power of the likes of Delhi and Punjab.

In its single Irani Trophy appearance, it drew with the Rest of India side but was considered the loser after conceding a first innings deficit. In any case, a loss was imminent after the Rest of India scored a remarkable 7-737 and got Bengal out for 262. [http://www.cricinfo.com/link_to_database/ARCHIVE/1990-91/IND_LOCAL/IRANI/BENG_R-O-I_IRANI_02-05NOV1990.html See Scorecard]

Famous players

*Sourav Ganguly
*Pankaj Roy
*Gopal Bose
*Rohan Gavaskar
*Arun Lal
*Jagaddipendra Narayan

2008/09 squad

External links

* [http://www.cricinfo.com/db/NATIONAL/IND/HISTORY/ Cricinfo's Complete History of the Indian Domestic Competitions]
* [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/IND/Ranji_Trophy_2006-07/Bengal_Batting.html Ranji Trophy 2006/7 Batting Averages]
* [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/IND/Ranji_Trophy_One_Day_2006-07/Bengal_Batting.html Ranji Trophy One Day 2006/7 Batting Averages]
* [http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Events/IND/Inter_State_Twenty-20_Tournament_2006-07/Bengal_Batting.html Inter State Twenty20 Tournament 2006/7 Batting Averages]