Ranji Trophy 2022/23 : “Dada” compares himself with Semi-finalists Bengal!

In a recent development during a Eastern conclave held at Kolkata on Monday, former BCCI president and Indian captain Sourav Ganguly spoke upon cricket in general and spread some light over Bengal’s performance in domestic cricket in the recent past.

He had a hilarious approach towards this answer and said that they have a lot of influence from Sourav Ganguly himself. The left-handed batter apparently had a similar fate and did not win any ICC International level tournament with the national side and he reflected that Bengal’s performance is quite similar to Ganguly’s fate.

Bengal has won only 2 Ranji Trophy titles since the start of the red-ball tournament in 1934-35. Its quite tough to believe given the fact that Bengal has such a rich sporting culture since the British era itself but the state hasn’t been very successful in the domestic circuit.

Other than Ranji, Bengal has been able to win the 50-over format – Vijay Hazare trophy and the T20 format – Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy only once in 2011-12 and 2010-11 respectively. This season however in the Ranji trophy, Bengal are just one win away from securing a spot in the finals if they beat Madhya Pradesh in the semi-final starting from tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Sourav Ganguly compared his career and Bengal’s reign in domestic cricket saying both the scenarios are different but both need luck to work in their favor. “I think they need a bit of luck. I was fortunate enough that I played in 89’ and won it for the first year. I’ve got into positions where we could have won the trophy, I think I played in the 92’ final, 94’ I played a final and I think 2005 I played a final and we lost.”