Bengal Tigers (Cricket team)

The Bengal Tigers are a franchise non-professional men's cricket team representing Tollywood in the Celebrity Cricket League which is contested between eight teams consisting of film celebrities from eight major regional film industry of Indian cinema. The franchise is owned by Bollywood film producer Boney Kapoor and his wife yesteryear actress Sridevi.

Although the team has gained immense popularity due to its association with celebrity owners, it was surrounded by poor on-field performance throughout the first four years of the tournament. The team's performance, however improved, under Jisshu Sengupta's captainship in 2016 Celebrity Cricket League, when they reached the semi-finals.

The leading run scorer of the team have been Jisshu Sengupta, while the leading wicket-taker is Indrasish Roy.The official colours of the team is being constantly changed from its inception.

Franchise history

In 2011, Vishnu Vardhan Induri, a Serial Entrepreneur from Hyderabad started Celebrity Cricket League in 2011 by giving franchise rights to six teams. For the second season, Bengal Tigers and Kerela Strikers were added. The team representing Tollywood was eventually brought by Boney Kapoor and his wife Sridevi along with another businessman Raju Shah. Kapoor, owner of the team, stated that he was given a choice between the Malayalam team and Bengal team, he choose the latter since he have a strong connection with the city from the start of his career.^[1]

Home Ground

Kanchunjunga Stadium in Siliguri

Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium Panorama

The home venue of the Bengal Tigers is the Kanchenjunga Stadium, also known as Kanchanjungha Krirangan, which is a multi-purpose stadium in Siliguri, India. The stadium was built in 1980s and holds a capacity of 40,000. Few of the team's home matches were also hosted by the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Dhaka.

Players

Jeet was the captain of the team and led the team in the few seasons, with Jisshu Sengupta as vice-captain of the team. The team had actor-turned-MP Dev, brothers Gaurav Chakraborty and Arjun Chakraborty, singer, actor-turned-MP Babul Supriyo, television and film actor Indraneil Sengupta, among other players. Due to the poor performance of the team, the team went for a revamp, with Jisshu Sengupta being retained and promoted to captain and Amitabh Bhattacharjee, Indrasish Roy, Joey Debroy among other players.^[2]

Sponsors and Brand Ambassadors

Hero Cycles has extended its association with Celebrity Cricket League for its fifth season by signing up as the lead sponsor of Bengal Tigers team, which represents the colourful Bengali film fraternity in this annual cricketing festival.Raima Sen and Sayantika Banerjee were the brand ambassadors for the team in 2013 Celebrity Cricket League. Payal Sarkar and Satyaki Banerjee have been signed as the brand ambassadors for the team from the fifth season.^[3]

Seasons

After getting eliminated after the group stage, the team qualified first time for the semi-finals in 2016 Celebrity Cricket League.

References