Bengal

The Calcutta Cricket Club was founded in 1792 with membership restricted to Europeans. The team's earliest known match was reported 23 February 1792 in the Madras Courier, Calcutta playing a team from Barrackpore and Dumdum. Eden Gardens was established as the club's home stadium in 1864.

It had been a park called Auckland Circus Gardens, named after George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, who was the Governor-General of India from 1836 to 1842. It was renamed Eden Gardens in 1841, in honour of Auckland's two sisters. For the first time, a team representing Bengal was formed in December 1889 for a match against an English touring team at Eden Gardens.

At that time, no native Bengalis were involved and the team, captained by British Army officer Cleveland Greenway, was composed of European colonials who were mostly British expatriates. Bengal lost the match, played over the New Year period, by an innings and 17 runs. In January 1923, a Bengal team took part in the Nagpur Provincial Tournament and, having defeated a Central Provinces XI in their semi-final, lost the final against Bombay.

The Bengal team in this competition included a couple of native players but, as before, it was principally a colonial enterprise. The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) was founded in 1928 and has governance of all cricket in West Bengal, including management of the Bengal team.