Salt Lake Stadium - Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata - Calcutta 5

Sports in West Bengal has its own importance.

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

are the most popular sports in the

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

Football

Unlike in other Indian states where cricket is considered as the most popular game with some exceptions, football is the most popular game in West Bengal. It can be considered as the football hub of India and houses many clubs like

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

East Bengal Club East Bengal Club, commonly referred to as East Bengal (), is an Indian professional Sports club, multi-sport club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. It is best known for its professional men's association football, football team that competes in t ...

, Mohammedan Sporting Club.

Cricket

As mostly in India, cricket is immensely popular among the masses of west Bengal. It houses the Eden Gardens stadium which is the largest cricket stadium in India. Eden gardens can house more than 100,000 people and is one of the only two 100,000-seat cricket amphitheaters in the world. Eden gardens is also the home for the

East Zone The East Zone cricket team is a first-class cricket team that represents eastern India in the Duleep Trophy and Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Inter Zonal. It is a composite team of five first-class Indian teams from eastern India competing in the Ranj ...

and Bengal Cricket team. It also houses the

Indian Premier League The Indian Premier League (IPL), also known as TATA IPL for sponsorship reasons, is a men's T20 franchise cricket league of India. It is annually contested by ten teams based out of seven Indian cities and three Indian states. The leagu ...

team

Kolkata Knight Riders Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) are a franchise cricket team representing the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. The franchise is owned by Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. The Knight Riders ...

bought by

Shah Rukh Khan Shah Rukh Khan (; born 2 November 1965), also known by the initialism SRK, is an Indian actor, film producer, and television personality who works in Hindi films. Referred to in the media as the " Baadshah of Bollywood", "King of Bollywood" ...

which uses Eden gardens as its home turf.

Calcutta Cricket and Football Club The Calcutta Cricket & Football Club (CC&FC) (formally named as Calcutta Cricket Club) is a multisports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Founded in 1792 as a cricket institution, the football and rugby sections were added when it mer ...

is the second-oldest cricket club in the world.

Other games

Indian sports like

kho kho Kho kho or kho-kho is a traditional Indian sport that dates back to ancient India. It is the second most popular traditional tag game in the Indian subcontinent after kabaddi. Kho kho is played on a rectangular court with a central lane connec ...

and

kabaddi Kabaddi is a contact team sport. Played between two teams of seven players, the objective of the game is for a single player on offence, referred to as a "raider", to run into the opposing team's half of the court, touch out as many of their ...

are also popular among the masses here.

Polo

The oldest polo club of the world,

Calcutta Polo Club Calcutta Polo Club is a polo club located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1862 and is considered as the oldest polo club of the world in existence. History The modern game of polo, though formalised and popularised by ...

is also present here.

Golf

Outside Great Britain the

Royal Calcutta Golf Club Royal Calcutta Golf Club (RCGC) in Kolkata, India was established in 1829 and is the oldest golf club in India and the first outside Great Britain. RCGC has an 18-hole golf course with the following detail: *Yardage: 7195/6871 *Par: 72 *Ratin ...

is the oldest of its kind.

Stadiums

Eden Gardens The Eden Gardens is a cricket ground in Kolkata, India. Established in 1864, it is the oldest and second-largest cricket stadium in India and third-largest in the world. The stadium currently has a capacity of 66,000. Eden Gardens is often re ...

is used mainly for

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

. *

Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan The Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK; ), commonly known as the Salt Lake Stadium, is an all-seater stadium, all-seater multi-purpose stadium located in Bidhannagar, with current capacity of 85,000 spectators. Named after Swami Vivekan ...

, a multi-use stadium, is the world's second highest-capacity football stadium. *

Durgapur Durgapur () is a planned tier-II urban agglomeration and a major industrial city in Paschim Bardhaman district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the fourth largest urban agglomeration after Kolkata, Asansol and Siliguri in West Bengal ...

Siliguri Siliguri, ) is a major tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms twin cities, "Twin Cities" with the neighboring district capital of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the Indian sta ...

and

Kharagpur Kharagpur () is a planned urban agglomeration and a major industrial city in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Kharagpur subdivision. It is the largest, most populated, multicultural and cosmopol ...

also hold various national and international sports events.

Notable persons

Dola Banerjee Dola Banerjee ( bn, দোলা ব্যানার্জি; born 2 June 1980) is an Indian sportswoman who competes in archery. Early life Dola Banerjee is daughter of Ashok Banerjee and Kalpana Banerjee. She was born in Baranagar near Ko ...

- archer * P.K. Banerjee - footballer * Rahul Banerjee - archer *

Swapna Barman Swapna Barman (born 29 October 1996) is an Indian heptathlete. She won the gold medal at 2018 Asian Games and placed first in the Heptathlon at the 2017 Asian Athletics Championships. In August 2019, she was honoured with the Arjuna Award. In 20 ...

- gold medal winner of heptathlon in

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

in Jakarta, Indonesia *

Dibyendu Barua Dibyendu Barua (born 27 October 1966) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Indian Chess Champion. He was the second Indian, after Viswanathan Anand, second Bengali after Niaz Murshed, and third South Asian after Niaz and Anand ...

- chess grand master *

Sourav Ganguly Sourav Chandidas Ganguly (; natively spelled as Gangopadhyay; born 8 July 1972), affectionately known as Dada (meaning ''"elder brother"'' in Bengali), is an Indian cricket administrator, commentator and former national cricket team captain w ...

- former

Indian national cricket captain India became a full member of the Imperial Cricket Conference (now the International Cricket Council) on 31 May 1926. On 25 June 1932 it became the sixth Test nation after England, Australia, South Africa, West Indies and New Zealand. The Indian ...

Chuni Goswami Subimal "Chuni" Goswami (15 January 1938 – 30 April 2020) was an Indian professional footballer and first-class cricketer. As footballer, he played as a striker or winger, captained both the Mohun Bagan club and the Indian national te ...

- footballer *

Sailen Manna Sailendra Nath Manna ( bn, শৈলেন মান্না; 1 September 1924 – 27 February 2012), known popularly as Sailen Manna, was an Indian football player who represented the India national team between 1948 and 1956. Predominantly p ...

- footballer *

Leander Paes Leander Adrian Paes ( ; born 17 June 1973) is an Indian former professional tennis player. He is regarded as one of the greatest doubles tennis players ever. He holds the record for the most doubles wins in the Davis Cup. Paes won eight men' ...

- Olympic tennis

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

list *

Pankaj Roy Pankaj Roy (; 31 May 1928 – 4 February 2001) was an Indian cricketer and former national cricket team captain. He was right-handed opening batsman, he is best known for establishing the world record opening partnership of 413 runs, together ...

- former Indian cricketer *

Wriddhiman Saha Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha (born 24 October 1984) is an Indian cricketer who plays for the Indian national cricket team. He is a right-handed wicket-keeper batsman. He plays for Tripura in domestic cricket and for Gujarat Titans in the Indian Pr ...

- Indian cricketer *

Mihir Sen Mihir Sen (16 November 1930 – 11 June 1997) was a famous Indian long distance swimmer and lawyer. He was the first Asian to conquer the English Channel from Dover to Calais in 1958, and did so in the fourth fastest time (14 hrs & 45 mins ...

- swimmer * Jyotirmoyee Sikdar - athlete and winner of gold medals at the Asian Games * Manoj Tiwary - Indian cricketer *

Jhulan Goswami Jhulan Nishit Goswami (born 25 November 1982) is an Indian cricketer. She plays as a right-arm medium fast bowler and right-handed batter. She is one of the fastest (female) bowler of all times and considered one of the greatest bowlers to ...

- former captain of

India national women's cricket team The India women's national cricket team, also known as Team India or Women in Blue, represents India in women's international cricket. It is governed by Board of Control for Cricket in India India made its Test debut in 1976, against the West ...

Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar Sukalyan Ghosh Dastidar (born 1947) was an Indian professional footballer from Jalpaiguri, who played as a striker (association football), striker for the India national football team, alongside Mohun Bagan AC, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal FC, Ea ...

- former Indian national team footballer

References

Sport in West Bengal {{WestBengal-stub