For the first time, cricket diplomacy came into play in consolidating India-Bangladesh relations as the two countries made their debut in the day-night pink-ball era with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ringing the ceremonial bell at Kolkata's Eden Gardens on Friday afternoon to mark the landmark occasion.
The bell was rung by Hasina and Mamata in the presence of Sourav Ganguly, the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Earlier, Hasina, who reached Kolkata on Friday morning by a special flight on an invitation by Ganguly, and Mamata were introduced to the players of Bangladesh and India on the field as thousands of spectators lustily cheered.
Hasina and Mamata are slated to have a brief one-on-one meeting at the Taj Bengal Hotel in Alipore locality of Kolkata at 6pm on Friday. This would be the first meeting between the two leaders in more than two years since their previous interaction took place in April, 2017 during the Bangladesh PM’s official visit to India.
This was the first time a Bangladesh head of government was present at a cricket match between the two countries. India had played a key role in helping Bangladesh get ICC test status 19 years ago when Ganguly was the captain of the Indian team. West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim, who is also Kolkata Mayor, and Ganguly, received Hasina on her arrival at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport at around 10.30am local time.
After long resisting the latest innovation in the longest format of the game, India and Bangladesh joined the pink ball jamboree ostensibly aimed at drawing more spectators and TV audiences to test cricket. Day-night Tests were successfully introduced in November 2015 in Australia but it took India a new BCCI set-up under former captain Sourav Ganguly to take the pink ball plunge.
Ganguly had convinced the Bangladesh Cricket Board to play a Test under the floodlights and now he arranged a grand spectacle at the Eden Gardens for the occasion. So far, 11 day-night Tests have been played worldwide since Australia and New Zealand played the first-ever pink-ball Test at the Adelaide Oval four years ago.
India were not open to the idea until Ganguly stepped into the picture and found skipper Virat Kohli on the same page. Ganguly has left no stone unturned to make India's first day-night Test a success. The tickets for the first four days of the Kolkata test have been sold out.
