Internet Desk: Former Indian captain & Kolkata’s very own Sourav Ganguly once said that Eden Gardens ‘belonged to him’ and that became a reality with a stand in the eastern block named after the Cricket Association of Bengal president.
To name the stadium blocks after popular personalities of that venue may be a common practice everywhere but it had been delayed at the majestic venue which is under lease from the Ministry of Defence who owns the land.
Finally the hurdles were cleared and it became a reality when the black plates bearing the names were illuminated in formal ceremony during the innings break of India-England third ODI.
Ganguly occupied the C-Block to the right side of BC Roy Club House, while former CAB president Jagmohan Dalmiya was immortalised on the left of it in the L-Block.
Former India captain Kapil Dev did the honour by illuminating Ganguly’s glowing name plates with a remote from a ceremony in the ground.
The ceremony also felicitated India’s most successful skipper MS Dhoni who was befittingly handed a citation and memento by India’s first World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev.
‘For a glorious decades of captaincy’ screamed a banner as the packed 67000-capacity crowd screamed Dhoni, Dhoni with his footage being played on the giant screen during the felicitation.
Coming back to the gallery-naming ceremony, the Eden also gave the place of honour to Bengal’s first cricket icon Pankaj Roy who led India once in his 43 Test appearances and was best known for his 413-run opening stand with Vinoo Mankad against New Zealand at the then Madras (Chennai) in January 1956.
It stood as a world record for over 50 years till Graham Smith and Neil McKenzie took it past 2008 as Roy finally found a place as the legendary Sunil Gavaskar did the honour of switching on the LED-glowing name plate in the D-Block.
Former BCCI president BN Dutt’s name was etched in the H-Block with former English skipper Naseer Hussain switching on the name plate lights with a remote, while Ganguly did the honour of Dalmiya.
There was a walk down the memory lane as the giant screen played the footage of the the four personalities when the ceremony was going on and it was Ganguly whose name plate was switched on by Kapil Dev in the last part with the crowd cheering ‘Dada, Dada’.
The most-popular cricketer of the venue, who started his journey from here as a toddler when he accompanied his father Chandidas before transforming Team India, once had quipped ‘Eden Gardens belonged to him’ to a query from former captain turned commentator Ravi Shastri.
In totality, the Eden will have eight stands to be named which would add two war heroes, which would be put forward by the Ministry of Defence.
The other two would be former cricketers JC Mukherjee and AN Ghosh as it would be completed during the next International match that the venue would host.
“On the next match four other stands will be named after J C Mukherjee, A N Ghosh and two war heroes. The Army is yet to finalise the names of the war heroes.”
“In 2009 Jagmohan Dalmiya took the initiative but the Army did not give permission. We are thankful to the Ministry of Defence to have allowed us to do so,” Ganguly said.
Ganguly thus joined the elite club of cricketers that include Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh (WACA); John Edrich and Dennis Compton (Lord’s); Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Vijay Merchant (Wankhede) who have stands named after them.
Meanwhile former India captain Sunil Gavaskar performed the Eden tradition of ringing the giant bell to signal the start of the match, something that was adopted from the iconic Lord’s.
Following the 10-year-old tradition of Lord’s, last year, Eden Gardens installed the silver coated bell under the Eden Clock and Kapil Dev was the first to ring at this ground to start the India-New Zealand second Test here from September 30-October 3.
With inputs from PTI.