Former ministers as mentors, terror convicts as batsman — inside Presidency jail a IPL inspired cricket league in play

This year, the tournament has become bigger with five teams — ‘Mumbai Indians’, ‘Sunrise Hyderabad’, ‘Kolkata Kings’, Royal Challengers’, and ‘Chennai Super Kings’. While the first four teams comprise inmates, prison staff make up the fifth one — ‘Chennai Super Kings’.

The first match of this season’s PPL was held on November 22 between ‘Kolkata Kings’ and ‘Chennai Super Kings’. ‘Kolkata Kings’ — mentored by job scam accused Sujay Krishna Bhadra, also known as ‘Kalighater Kaku’ — has “star players” like Kader Khan, the Park Street rape accused; Kunal Gupta, the call centre scam accused; and Anisur Rehman, accused of killing TMC leader Kurban Shah in Panskura.

However, jail staff, including jailers, playing for ‘Chennai Super Kings’ proved to be better and defeated ‘Kolkata Kings’. A week later, on November 29, ‘Mumbai Indians’ took on ‘Royal Challengers’.

Playing for ‘Mumbai Indians’, American Center terror attack convicts Jamaluddin Naser and Aftab Ansari led the team to victory. Notably, Naser, Ansari and their team mentors — Partha Chatterjee and Jyotipriya Mallick — are housed in the high security ‘Poila Baish’ cell block.
The alleged ‘kingpin’ of the Rose Valley chit fund scam, Gautam Kundu, is the mentor of ‘Sunrise Hyderabad’.

“Every year we organise cricket matches for inmates, but this winter year we are organising the tournament in a big way. The inmates, both undertrials and convicts, are taking part. The matches are held from 2 pm to 5 pm under strict watch of jail guards and jail officials,” a senior jail official said.

All the five teams have their own jersey and cricketing kit. “There is tremendous enthusiasm among the inmates. We have also formed a disciplinary committee, headed by the jail superintendent,” the official added.

With one-match-a-week schedule and round-robin league, the tournament is expected to continue till January when the final match will take place. Besides the winner and runner-up trophies, the best player, best bowler, and best batsman of the tournament will also be awarded.

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