North East Zone fast bowler Bishworjit Konthoujam grabbed the headlines on Sunday after he got the wicket of East Zone’s Vaibhav Sooryavanshi during their Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Bengaluru.
Vaibhav was making his Duleep Trophy debut on Sunday, but his first innings lasted very shortly as he was dismissed for eight runs from six deliveries, hitting two boundaries. Sooryavanshi, the new vice-captain of East Zone, opened the innings along with Abhimanyu Easwaran.
Vaibhav began on an attacking note and looked promising, but faltered after hitting just two boundaries. Both of Vaibhav’s boundaries came off Konthoujam’s deliveries.
The first was worked through mid-wicket after Konthoujam angled the delivery into him, before Vaibhav Sooryavanshi drove the following ball through cover for another boundary.
However, the 15-year-old was dismissed soon after. Sooryavanshi attempted to cut the ball on the up through point, but the shot went straight to the fielder at gully.
Who is Bishworjit Konthoujam?
Bishworjit Konthoujam was born 3 February, 1996 in Manipur’s Imphal. He made his List-A debut for Manipur in September 2018 against Puducherry, and went onto make his First-Class debut against Sikkim in November that same year.
He ended the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy season as the highest wicket-taker for Manipur, with 30 scalps from eight matches. In 2025, he also became the first cricketer from the Northeast Zone to reach 50 wickets in List-A cricket.
Cricket, however, wasn’t the first sport he played. In an interview with Imphal Review of Arts and Politics (IRAP) in 2025, Konthoujam stated that he had competed in a boxing tournament in Arunachal Pradesh during the 2014-15 season, and ended up winning a gold medal.
“I participated in a boxing event in Arunachal Pradesh around 2014-2015 and won a gold medal. After returning, I suffered from a shoulder injury and required rest. During the injury, a local cricket event was happening in my place; that’s when Leishangthem Ronen (Da Mocha), the current secretary of the cricket association of Manipur, encouraged me to be serious about cricket and made me a bowler,” he said.
“After that, things really began to change. I began focusing on cricket and playing in several tournaments. Eventually, I was slowly guided away from boxing, and began playing state and national cricket tournaments in the Northeast and other regions of the country, winning many of those tournaments,” the 30-year-old added.
He revealed that the biggest turning point came in 2018-19, when the BCCI reinstated the Manipur Cricket Association (MCA), which eventually led the state’s cricketers to play in premier domestic tournaments like Ranji Trophy, Mushtaq Ali Trophy and Vijay Hazare Trophy.
When Konthoujam made history
Fast forward to 2025, the right-arm medium pacer became the first cricketer from Manipur to play for an English club after he signed up with Tynemouth Cricket Club. Bishworjit later said that him signing for the club was not good news just for him, but for Manipur cricket and Indian cricket as well.
“I see this opportunity not only as positive for me, but for my home state of Manipur, and India. I will have a chance to play competitively at a different level, experience different training practices, and immerse myself in a different culture of cricket. I will learn new experiences, knowledge and skills that will improve my own game, and I can share learnings with cricketers back home.
He also hoped to inspire the younger generation of cricketers in Manipur and all across India.
“More than even my own development, my priority is to use this opportunity to create pathways for young cricketers in Manipur and throughout India,” he had said in the interview with IRAP.