It is a league of its own where two former ministers in Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet, Partha Chatterjee and Jyotipriya Malik, are the cricket team’s mentors and terror attack convicts Jamaluddin Nasser and Aftab Ansari are players.
Every year, Kolkata’s Presidency Jail hosts the Presidency Premier League (PPL) – a mini T20 championship – a cricket tournament inspired by the Indian Premier League (IPL).
This year, the tournament has become bigger with five teams ‘Mumbai Indians’, ‘Sunrise Hyderabad’, ‘Kolkata Kings’, Royal Challengers, and ‘Chennai Super Kings’. The first four teams consist of inmates while prison staff form the fifth team – ‘Chennai Super Kings’.
The first match of PPL this season was played on November 22 between ‘Kolkata Kings’ and ‘Chennai Super Kings’. The ‘Kolkata Kings’ – mentored by job scam accused Sujay Krishna Bhadra, also known as ‘Kalighatar Kaku’ – have “star players” like Park Street rape accused Kader Khan; Call center scam accused Kunal Gupta; And Anisur Rehman is accused of killing TMC leader Qurban Shah in Panskura.
However, the jail staff including the jailer proved to be good when they played against the ‘Chennai Super Kings’ and defeated the ‘Kolkata Kings’. A week later on November 29, ‘Mumbai Indians’ faced ‘Royal Challengers’.
Playing for ‘Mumbai Indians’, American Center terror attack convicts Jamaluddin Nasser and Aftab Ansari led the team to victory. Notably, Nasser, Ansari and their team advisors – Partha Chatterjee and Jyotipriya Mallick – are housed in the high-security ‘Poila Baish’ cell block.
Gautam Kundu, the alleged ‘kingpin’ of the Rose Valley chit fund scam, is the mentor of ‘Sunrise Hyderabad’.
“Every year we organize cricket matches for the inmates, but this winter year we are organizing the tournament in a big way. Prisoners, both undertrials and convicts, are participating. The games take place from 2 pm to 5 pm under strict surveillance of jail guards and jail officials,” said a senior jail official.
All five teams have their own jerseys and cricket kits. “There is great enthusiasm among the prisoners. We have also constituted a disciplinary committee under the leadership of the jail superintendent,” said the official.
With a schedule of one game a week and a round robin league, the tournament is expected to run until January when the finals will be played. The winner and runner-up of the tournament will be awarded trophies as well as the best player, best bowler and best batsman.
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