After having a thunderous success of the first-ever day-night Test at Eden Gardens, new BCCI president Sourav Ganguly on Sunday said he hopes the pink ball game will go to all parts of the country. Eden Gardens hosted the historic game with packed crowds which made the game more popular where India won the game by an innings and 46 runs on day three against Bangladesh.
“I am relaxed, relieved and happy. We wanted to do this for Test cricket. It is so important. People were not turning up for Test cricket. We did a lot of things (promotion) during and before this Test. It was sold out all throughout even today though the game was expected to finish early,” said Sourav Ganguly.
“I remember the 2001 Test (India-Australia). There were more than 100,000 people in this stadium and you don’t want champions like Kohli, Rohit or Ishant to play in front of empty stands. So, I am extremely happy to see this,” Ganguly said to Star Sports.
Virat Kohli too has welcomed the initiative. However, Ganguly said he will soon speak to Kohli to know his thoughts about the game as well.
“Hopefully it will spread to other parts of the country and I am convinced it will. This will revive Test cricket because it is different for people. Everything changes with time including people’s taste. I remember when T20 started in 2007 and India won the World Cup, the format was not given a lot of value. 10 years later, not a single seat is empty when a T20 is played. And this was the first pink Test,” added the former captain.
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“I believe (that it will be a success) because I have played the game. I want these champion players should always play in front of packed stadium,” said the former India captain who took charge as BCCI boss only last month. It can’t just be in Eden Gardens all the time. It needs to go to other parts of the country. There are very big grounds in India. People throughout the country should experience this,” Ganguly shared.
Although there were talks on the condition and sighting issues with the pink ball, especially in the twilight, Ganguly feels conditions were not too different from a red ball game.
“The conditions were perfectly fine. There was worry about the dew, whether you would be able to bowl in the night. This Eden pitch has grass, it is not the old pitch anymore. If this was day four, day five, spinners would have slowly come into the game,” Ganguly revealed. “The fast bowlers have always got help here. I have not seen anything different with the red ball. When there are good conditions in England or during the winters in India, the ball does a bit. So, the conditions were fine.”
“There were few words about the pink ball but it is only going to get better when you keep playing. You have to produce one ball once in 10 years, it is not going to be at its best (initially). So those things will keep happening but most important thing for me was four days of the Test match, I had 55000 tickets sold,” Sourav Ganguly concluded.
