A decades-old photograph of Mamata Banerjee has bowled over social media, showing the West Bengal Chief Minister not in her trademark slippers and shawl — but in cricketing gear, smiling under a cap beside then Union minister Margaret Alva.
The picture, believed to be from a friendly match between Members of Parliament in the 1980s, resurfaced after an unexpected shoutout at Eden Gardens on Saturday.
During the felicitation of India’s World Cup-winning cricketer Richa Ghosh, the anchor revisited Banerjee’s little-known sporting chapter, recalling how she once bagged the ‘Player of the Match’ award in a Parliament game.
That was enough for the internet to go digging. Within hours, the image which was originally posted years ago by Alva’s son, Nivedith Alva, was everywhere.
The Telegraph Online has not independently verified the authenticity of the photograph.
TMC leaders shared the photo of their supremo in action, while the Opposition seized the moment to take a few playful swings of their own.
Junior Union minister Sukanta Majumdar, when asked about the viral photo at Bagdogra Airport, couldn’t resist a jab: “The only thing left now is for her to win a Nobel Prize.”
The match, reportedly held around 1986, featured MPs from both Houses of Parliament — the Lok Sabha XI led by Union minister P.R. Kumaramangalam against the Rajya Sabha side.
Banerjee, then a young Congress MP, was part of the winning Lok Sabha team and emerged as the standout performer.
Such exhibition matches were an annual tradition in Delhi through the 1980s and ’90s.
And for once, it seems, Mamata Banerjee didn’t just bat for Bengal. She batted for the Lok Sabha and walked away with the trophy.