In The Pink

Despite Bangladesh’s poor showing and some visibility issues with the pink ball, the day-night experiment was a hit

- Neeru Bhatia

Day one of India’s first day-night Test, at the fabled Eden Gardens, saw a lot of action on and off the field. Several sporting icons, including former India captains, boxer M.C. Mary Kom, former shuttler Pullela Gopichand and tennis player Sania Mirza, along with BCCI officials past and present, turned up for the historic occasion. Ganguly, as the new BCCI president, left no stone unturned to make India’s first pink-ball Test memorable. Even political leaders, including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, were in the stadium on day one.

While most guests were excited about the pink ball, the cricketers were more cautious. Former captain Mohammad Azharuddin, now president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association, said: “It is too early. Need some more time to see whether it (pink ball) works or not.”

Within the next two days, India crushed Bangladesh by an innings and 46 runs. However, there were mixed reactions about the visibility of the pink ball. While some players saw no problem with it, some like Cheteshwar Pujara said it was harder to spot under the lights.

Regardless, the first pink-ball Test had shown the way forward—the BCCI has to hype Test cricket to draw in crowds. Captain Virat Kohli and Ganguly echoed similar thoughts, with the former going a step further to accept, with caveats, his Australian counterpart Tim Paine’s request for a possible daynight Test when India tour Australia at the end of 2020 for a four-Test series.