Former Indian captains, including the legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, and Kapil Dev were felicitated on Friday in a grand ceremony following the first day of the historic day-night Test between India and Bangladesh. Tendulkar, Dev, Dravid, Chandu Borde, and current head coach Ravi Shastri were among the ones felicitated.
Earlier in the day, they lauded the work done by BCCI president and former Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly to make day-night Test a reality in India.
Talking about the full house at Eden Gardens, Dravid said, “If you get this kind of numbers coming into the game, there is definitely a future (for day-night Tests). It is great to see that. Incredible atmosphere. This is something we used to when we started out in Test cricket.”
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The Cricket Association of Bengal had also invited Bangladesh players who were part of their team’s first Test back in 2000, which too was played against India.
Talking about the pink all experiment, Tendulkar said, “Have to move with the times, when it comes to adaptability, need to explore things and see if it works or not. If it works well, good. If it doesn’t – like dew playing spoilsport or sighting the ball is an issue – you get together and find a feasible solution.”
The players present from the neighboring country included their first Test skipper, Naimur Rahman, Mohammed Mahmudul Hasan, Maharab Hossain, Mohammed Hasibul Hussain, Shahriar Hossain Biddut, Kazi Habibul Bashar and Mohammed Akram Khan.
Former Indian cricketers could also be seen in the match including Sadagopan Ramesh, Saba Karim, Sunil Joshi, Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammed Azharuddin, K Srikkanth and Farokh Engineer.
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After being reluctant for four years, India finally embraced the Day-Night format for Test cricket, following a strong push from Ganguly. The cricketers also took a round of the iconic venue on a golf cart.