Back-to-back successes of budding cricketers from Siliguri has made sports lovers, especially cricket lovers, raise the demand for a cricket stadium in the city.

Siliguri — famed for Wriddhiman Saha and Richa Ghosh, both regulars in Team India now — has been consistently coming up with new talents in cricket and some of them are making it to different state teams these days.

Representatives of the Siliguri Cricket Lovers’ Welfare Organisation on Monday submitted a memo addressed to chief minister Mamata Banerjee through state tourism minister Gautam Deb, demanding a cricket ground in the city.

Mithilesh Das Telegraph picture

“In our memorandum, we have said around 15 acres owned by the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority is lying vacant at Kawakhali (on the southwest end of Siliguri). The cricket ground can come up on the site,” said Manoj Verma, association president.

Mohammad Shahbaz Anwar, who scored 1,130 runs in nine matches in the last Col CK Nayudu Trophy, including five centuries and six half-centuries, was recently selected by the Sikkim Cricket Association for its Ranji team. Mithilesh Das, another promising cricketer, got a call for a conditioning camp where players would be selected for the Bengal team for Ranji Trophy matches.

Priyanka Kurmi Telegraph picture

Among girls, Richa apart, Priyanka Kurmi made it to the senior Bengal team, Nikita Sha and Puja Adhikary have been roped in for the state Under-19 team recently.

Wriddhiman’s coach in his home town, Jayanta Bhowmik, who’s also the cricket secretary of Siliguri Mahakuma Krira Parishad (SMKP), the sub-divisional sports body of Siliguri, said the coaching fraternity was not surprised at the boys doing well.

The real achievement, he said, was that the girls were performing so well. He said a cricket ground was sorely needed in the city to hone such promising talents.

Another cricket coach of the city pointed that success of cricketers clearly suggests that there is no dearth of budding cricketers in the city. “But we need some proper infrastructure, at least an exclusive cricket ground for nurturing these talents,” he said.

Many people in Siliguri have raised the demand for an cricket stadium of international standards in the city.

Mohammad Shahbaz Anwar Telegraph picture

A few months back, the Siliguri Jalpaiguri Development Authority (SJDA) marked the area in Kawakhali on the southwest end of Siliguri to develop a cricket ground.

“The plot has been earmarked for a proposed cricket ground that later can be developed into a full-fledged cricket stadium. Such an exclusive ground is necessary for cricketers here. Every year, we face problems to host cricket league matches as there is no such ground. We intend to finalise the proposal to develop the ground at the upcoming board meeting of the SJDA. We will also speak with the state sports department on the project,” said Nantu Paul, vice-chairman of the SJDA.