Amid the electrifying atmosphere, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rung the traditional bell at Eden Gardens in the presence of BCCI President Sourav Ganguly as the highly-anticipated Day-Night Test got underway between India and Bangladesh on Friday (November 22).
Hasina and Mamata also shook hands with the players of both teams before the national anthem was played by the Army Band in front of a capacity crowd.
The historic match was supposed to kickstart with Army paratroopers flying into Eden Gardens to hand over a pink ball each to the two captains just before the toss. However, the plan had to be called off at the last moment by the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) owing to security concerns.
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) chief Nazmul Hasan Papon and cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar also made their presence felt on this momentous occasion.
The other former India cricketers present at the iconic venue were S. Ramesh, Saba Karim, Sunil Joshi, Ajit Agarkar, Venkatesh Prasad, Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Mohammed Azharuddin, Kris Srikkanth, Farokh Engineer and Chandu Borde.
Among the former Bangladeshi cricketers to attend this match include Naimur Rahman, Mohammed Mahmudul Hasan, Maharab Hossain, Mohammed Hasibul Hussain, Shahriar Hossain Biddut, Kazi Habibul Bashar and Mohammed Akram Khan.
Athletes from other sports like Abhinav Bindra, P. Gopichand, P.V. Sindhu, Sania Mirza and Mary Kom were also present in Kolkata.
(Inputs from IANS)
