Kolkata: Eighteen years ago, Sahaspur’s Mohammad Shami had turned up at Kolkata’s Dalhousie Athletic Club with a reference from his local coach Badruddin Siddique and a month’s pocket money.
He shared the tent space with other players, started earning ₹75,000 per year with the promise of biryani every time he would take a five-wicket haul. Six years later, he made his India debut at Eden Gardens, barely 800 yards from the Dalhousie AC tent. It’s a story playing on loop in the last decade, featuring names like Shami, Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep.
Not everyone becomes Shami. But that doesn’t stop cricketers from dreaming big. Shami’s journey was a trigger for other cricketers from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to make a queue for Kolkata clubs. In fact, all cricketers to have got an India call-up after Wriddhiman Saha-Shami, Shahbaz Ahmed, Kumar, Deep and Abhimanyu Easwaran (he has played A cricket and is travelling with the Test team)-were not born in Bengal.
Raju Mukherjee, former Bengal captain and a revered former BCCI scout, match referee and selector, puts it down to being at the right place at the right time. This is where Kolkata’s club cricket circuit plays a vital role. “We are a more liberal society here. These cricketers see Bengal as a place where they would get more opportunities,” says Mukherjee.
Bengal has always embraced cricketers from other states. Six years with Delhi probably didn’t do enough justice to Arun Lal’s potential so he moved to Bengal in 1980-81 with a job and an offer from Mohun Bagan. Ashok Malhotra left Haryana after making his debut for India. Saba Karim too switched to Bengal despite starting his domestic career for Bihar, primarily to stay in the national selectors’ visibility.
Apart from them were also examples of Chetan Sharma, Narendra Hirwani or Kapil Dev spending a few weeks in Kolkata’s club circuit, ostensibly for a handsome remuneration. Even Virat Kohli had turned out for Mohun Bagan in 2009, scoring a blazing hundred in the P Sen Trophy final against Town at Eden Gardens.
But these are examples of more established professionals. To find a Shami or an Akash Deep, an average Kolkata club has to test scores of non-domicile players before hedging their bets, hoping one of them would return a stellar season.
“This practice has always existed,” says Abdul Monayem, coach of East Bengal. “Mumbai is the hub but Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai too have had their share of players from other states. Similarly, Kolkata has always been a major hub for players from UP or Bihar, primarily because it acts as a catchment area. Plus Bengal has had a stellar Ranji record (they reached two finals between 2020 and 2023) so it always is a major attraction to outside players.”
Another way of migrating to Bengal is to get noticed at the Ambar Roy (U-13 and U-15) tournament, a Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) monitored meet for private cricket academies in the state. Grab attention there and Kolkata clubs will definitely go for you.
“A very good example is Easwaran,” says Mukherjee, explaining that he had understood very early that getting noticed would be impossible without going through a proper system.
“Uttarakhand didn’t have affiliation back then,” Easwaran, a prolific batter, had told HT in an interview. “Kolkata had many tournaments under the CAB. The selection had a process to it, unlike in many other states.” Same logic applied to Shami, who hails from a village where “nobody used to mention cricket”. “Honestly, there was nothing apart from my school,” Shami had said after his debut.
It was not always like this, especially in Bihar during the 60s and early 70s where thanks to the venerable Russi Mody-then the managing director of Tata Steel-notable cricketers like Daljt Singh and Ramesh Gidwani turned out for Bihar because of their employment.
Karim, too, had worked at TISCO. By the time Mukherjee was touring Bihar as the BCCI’s Talent Resource Development Officer though, things had gone south. Patronage of the Railways still mattered, but there was hardly anything beyond that apart from tennis ball khep tournaments.
“The office leagues were always very popular there,” says Mukherjee. “But for professional club cricket, one had to eventually come to Kolkata or Bengaluru.”
The struggle gets more real once you land in Kolkata, with even second-division cricket wearing out many talented players.
“Fifty-seven second division clubs, 37 of them in first division, you can understand how competitive it can become in Kolkata. And there isn’t much chance of large-scale discrepancy here. This is also why cricketers come to Kolkata, because they know this type of grind can toughen them for the higher levels,” says Monayem. Not all make the cut though.
So effective was Bihar’s Veer Pratap Singh’s swing bowling that a Ranji debut for Bengal was only a matter of time but he could never build on that. Another example is Haryana-born Pramod Chandila who is still scorching the club circuit with hundreds but his domestic career has been almost blink-and-miss.
It only illustrates how making it to the top is not only about talent or hard work but also about the rub of the green. And also word of mouth. Scorers, umpires and match observers would retire to canteens or the playing rooms in different club tents, exchanging notes on who they felt stood out in different matches because of their speed or accuracy. Word usually travels fast to the CAB office rooms, particularly of fast bowlers because of the slow pitches here.
Former national selector Sambaran Banerjee happened to be standing near the sight screen when a wiry Shami was bowling for Town Club, where Swami Vivekananda (then Narendranath Dutta) once played.
“He had good pace and had taken six wickets in his first spell against Suburban Club,” Banerjee had told HT. “I asked the Town captain to make Shami bowl against the wind and he was still bowling at the same speed. The next day I told the Bengal selectors that they had to check out this boy.”
More recently, Deep’s pace prompted under-23 coach Saurashish Lahiri to ensure he got accommodation at the Eden Gardens dormitory. Kolkata’s club cricket culture is peppered with such stories. Most go unheard. But some are retold in the hope of inspiring the next generation of migrant players.