The buzz ahead of an international game at the Eden Gardens has set in for a while – what with both India and England squads having reached the City of Joy on Saturday evening. No wonder, Snehasish Ganguly, the elder brother of Dada of Indian cricket and the man at the helm of Eden of cricket for last two years, has his hands full.
It was in last October that he had completed his first two years as the President of Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), a period during which the historic venue has underlined its status as one of the premier venues all over again – hosting five matches of the 2023 ICC World Cup including a semi-final. The timing of the first India vs England T20I here on January 22 (Wednesday), the first fixture of Indian team on home soil in the New Year, has also played it’s part in generating a big demand for tickets among the fans.
“Kolkata fans have never ceased to amaze us. It may be only a bilateral match but the moment we opened up online sales for tickets, around 3000 tickets were sold within 15 minutes – something which did not happen even for the World Cup. We had opened up off-the-counter sales for a while and the queue had stretched right upto the High Court,’’ remarked the CAB supremo as he shuttled between meetings.
In a thoughtful gesture, the state association will be ceremonially rechristening two of the stands after Jhulan Goswami, former India women’s team captain and country’s highest wicket taker in women’s ODIs and war hero Col N.J. Nair on the match day. The latter is the only Army official to have been conferred both the Ashok Chakra and Kirti Chakra awards.
“It’s after 2016 that we have got permission from the Army to dedicate two stands after two achievers – one in the field of cricket and another in Army. Prior to that on Monday (January 20), there is a special programme called Meet the Champions where
we will honour our Under-15 girls’ team which won the BCCI one-day tournament and the Under-19 boys who were runners-up in the CK Nayudu Trophy,’’ Snehashis said.
Barely two months down the line, the Eden will be hosting the opening game and the final of the IPL 2025 - in keeping with the tradition of the home venue of the defending champions being allotted these games. ‘’We are excited that the IPL opening ceremony and the final will be held at the Eden after 12 years,’’ remarked the former stylish southpaw, dismissing rumours that the Eden could be off limits for the IPL as preparation for the next World T20 in 2026 would start across the venues in India. ‘’We have already clarified to the KKR management that Eden is very much available,’’ he said during an exclusive chat.
There was a time when the hallowed turf would be almost assured of getting some of the marquee matches whenever India hosted a major tournament, but in the words of Snehasish, things have much become tougher now. ‘’For last 15 years, you cannot really take things for granted as the BCCI has a lot of options in terms of venues. We had to fight against odds to convince Jay Shah for giving us five plum matches – which included a semi-final, England-Pakistan and India-South Africa,’’ the CAB supremo added.
The last time India hosted a 50-overs World Cup in 2011, one of India’s high profile matches had to be shifted out of Eden with the venue not being ready on time. ‘’Despite the glorious history of Eden, a number of improvements were necessary for the viewing experience of the fans and we decided to focus on those areas. By the time the IPL 2023 came, we gave BCCI a tour of the renovated clubhouse, media centre, the under-gallery washrooms for spectators which had been an area of complaint,’’ Snehasish said.
Looking back at the first two years of his tenure as a president, he said it gave his team a great deal of satisfaction to finally get the Bengal Pro T20 League off the ground. ‘’CAB had realised the need to start their own franchise league a number of years back and were not really influenced by others. The difference between us and others is while the other state bodies are bankrolling the teams, we successfully organised bids for all teams and decided to go ahead with the women’s edition as well,’’ he signed off.