CABThe Cricket Association of Bengal

Pink is the colour of the season
Arindam Basu
14th November 2019
"Pink it's my new obsession; Yeah, pink it's not even a question...Pink it's the color of passion; A-cause today it just goes with the fashion"
These cult lines by Aerosmith a couple of decades back is true for Kolkata today. For there is a rush for Pink ahead of India's first Pink Ball D/N Test at the iconic Eden Gardens from November 22. Such is the madness that the tickets for the first three days are sold out and the common rhetoric is "yeh dil mange more".
Kolkata is known for its passion for sports and it does not get bigger when Bengal's very own Sourav Ganguly as the BCCI President scripts history at Eden Gardens. Ganguly has been vocal about the importance of Test matches not losing relevance in face of it's other versions and with this masterstroke of making Tests D/N he has not only revived and regenerated interest in purest form of the Gents' Game, he has made it the focal point of all discussions.
Now back to the madness. It has been a long time since we have seen a sizable crowd before Eden Garden club house looking for tickets for Test matches. If you have some distant connection with Cricket Association of Bengal people either keeps your phone under seige for tickets or give you looks that make daggers look like wafers.
The CAB and BCCI is also leaving no stones unturned to make the Test match an event to remember. Hoardings across the city, bus branding, digital LED boards and fitouts is adding to the rising Mercury for tickets. More so because Bangladesh are no pushovers these days and can put up a lip smacking contest under floodlights when a winnowing breeze and silent dew works it's magic on the cherry making it swing in the air and seam off the pitch.
The presence of Bangladesh Prime Minister Seikh Hasina, State Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Union Home Minister Amit Shah along with the legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman promises to make the opening day a star studded affair. So all in all Test matches seems to be regaining the pink of health.