KOLKATA, Nov 21, 2019 (BSS) – Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque was unfazed by the extreme enthusiasm revolving around the maiden day-night Test between his side and India, stating that they would focus only on cricket, keeping aside those outside factors.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly made everything possible to make the occasion a memorable one, taking a various steps. The passion was palpable as the tickets for the first three days have already been sold out. Kolkata, the ‘City of Joy’ has gone for pink to mark the occasion a memorable one.
The historic Test will kick off at 1:30pm Bangladesh Standard Time tomorrow and the Indian Army paratroopers will fly into the Eden Gardens to hand over a pink ball each to the two captains just before the toss.
This will be followed by the ringing of the customary Eden Bell by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
The CAB will also felicitate the team members of Bangladesh-India first ever Test in 2000, a game where Ganguly made his debut as Test captain. India legendary players like Sachin Tendulkar and others will also be facilitated.
The passion amongst the people is also palpable. Kolkata, termed as the ‘City of Joy’ had different places colored in pink as that seems to be the color of the day while the 22 storied TATA building and another 42-storied building will have 3-D mapping.
“I don’t think this should affect us in any way because as a professional cricket, you should not think about this,” Mominul said here on Thursday.
“You will do you work, I mean the organizers would do their work to make all the things entertaining outside of the ground and I will do my work to only focus on the cricket. So as a professional cricketer, I don’t think these things should divert us from the cricket.”
Mominul said as they are going to play the day-night Test for the first time, there is some excitement but he doesn’t want to let this affect their game.
“At the end of the day, you have to play cricket. There is nothing to think about the ball or other things,” he remarked.
“Yes there is some excitement that as to how we would deal with the pink ball and how the pink ball will behave.”