Santosh Trophy: Bengal coach rues unavailability of players

Kolkata  :  Ahead of defending champions West Bengal's first training session for the final round of the 72nd edition of the National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy, head coach Ranjan Chowdhury rued the unavailability of key first team players due to club commitments.

West Bengal, in Group A, will take on Manipur on March 19 here as the final round gets underway. Chandigarh, Maharashtra and Kerala are the other three members of the group.

"At the moment we have five Mohammedan Sporting players in my squad of 20 who are with the club. So they are unavailable to train and I don't know when I will get them," Chowdhury told IANS on the sidelines of the team's first training session at the Rabindra Sarovar Stadium.

"I have four players taking part in the Inter Railway Football Championship so they are unavailable as well." 

Key players like forward Jiten Murmu, defender Ankit Mukherjee, midfielder Tirthankar Sarkar and Ranajit Majumder are among those missing due to their club Mohammedan Sporting taking part in the ongoing Steel Express Football Tournament in Chakradharpur, Jharkhand.

Mohammedan Sporting are participating in the competition as a part of their preparations for the upcoming 2017/18 Second Division League.

Mohammedan Sporting will play the semi-final against Metro Railway of Kolkata on Sunday.

West Bengal made the cut by winning their two Group B qualifiers against Chhattisgarh (2-0) and Jharkhand (2-0) in Patna.

"I want to retain the squad we have. Also I cannot pick players from I-League and ISL (Indian Super League) clubs as the rules don't permit that. Also, I have to have five U-21 players in the squad and three in playing XI who will be on the field for ninety minutes. So preparation wise I am a bit handicapped," said Chowdhury who holds an AFC 'B' Coaching License.

"It is not easy to form a team in Bengal. Let's see how our training goes," the former Tollygunge Agragami coach added.

Last year, West Bengal lifted the Santosh Trophy for the 32nd time after Manvir Singh struck in the 119th minute for a 1-0 win over Goa, extending their domination in the premier domestic football tournament.

In the other group, Goa, Mizoram, Odisha, Punjab and Karnataka will fight it out for a place in the semi-final. The final is slated for April 1.

Ten teams who qualified from the preliminary stages have been divided into two groups of five teams each with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals which are to be played on March 30.

Bengal squad for qualifiers: Ranajit Majumder, Laltu Mondal, Abhishek Aich, Manotosh Chakladar (U-21), Nabi Hossain Khan (U-21), Ankit Mukherjee, Saikat Saharoy, Krishna Biswas (U-21), Koushik Sarkar, Jagannath Oraon, Dipankar Das, K.G. Bidyashagar Singh (U-21), Tirthankar Sarkar, Babun Das, Laxmikanta Mandi, Sanchayan Samaddar, Sumit Das, Jiten Murmu (c), Rajon Barman, Sandip Bhattacharya (U-21).