A senior cricket official in Calcutta was asked around December 2010 how difficult the road ahead would be, as Bengal was set for a change from the Left Front rule to the Trinamool Congress reign. “There was a comfort zone, but we all will learn to deal with TMC,” he had said.
Now, as Bengal turned saffron from Monday, sports officials across the state are gearing up to recalibrate after 15 years. “Sports did not get affected even when governments changed. From Subhas Chakraborty (CPIM) to Madan Mitra to Aroop Biswas, every sports minister has been on good terms with the officials and players. I am hopeful the new government will do the same,” senior East Bengal official Debabrata Sarkar said.
For the record, outgoing chief minister Mamata Banerjee helped the club to find an investor twice — Shree Cement in September 2020 and Emami in the summer of 2022. Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting have office-bearers who are either TMC legislators or councillors. “Sports officials will find a working relation with the new dispensation,” IFA secretary Anirban Dutta said.
Most of the associations now are controlled by officials who are either from the
TMC or have the blessings of its leaders... The Bengal Olympic Association (BOA), the Indian Football Association (IFA), and Hockey Bengal, to name a few.
Mamata’s elder brother Ajit Banerjee is the president of the IFA, Chandan Roy Choudhury defeated Mamata’s younger brother Swapan Banerjee to take control of BOA, but with the help of Trinamool leaders. Trinamool leader Sujit Bose took charge of Bengal Hockey after Swapan Banerjee completed his eight-year term.
“Most of them will have to go, but I do not think there will be a change overnight,” a Maidan veteran said.
Kalyan Chaubey, the AIFF president and BJP leader, said sports will get a facelift.
“Bengal never hosted a Khelo India event, which could have helped development in infrastructure. The outgoing government spent around crores in doles to para clubs in the last 15 years. That could have been spent on sports,” Chaubey said.
The Salt Lake Stadium, which has a capacity of more than 60,000, hardly hosts India matches (the last was in June, 2024). “It’s because the then sports minister (Aroop Biswas) had a problem with Chaubey and the AIFF. It was politics,” a club official said.
“I am promising more India matches from now on,” Chaubey said.
Bengal’s sporting image hit a new low after the Lionel Messi fiasco at the Salt Lake Stadium on December 13, last year. The incident cost Biswas his ministry as pictures of disgruntled fans grabbed eyeballs across the world.
“If Messi had come now in Calcutta, everything would have been smooth,” Chaubey said.
“The entire sports fraternity was tired of Aroop Biswas’s high-handedness. Nobody dared to speak up. Now we hope the change is for the better,” an official said.
