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India & Bangladesh will play first ever day-night Test at Kolkata: Ganguly‘s long cherished dream comes True

INDIA and Bangladesh have agreed to  play the first-ever  Day-Night Test match in the subcontinent  at the  iconic Eden Gardens Stadium  located in Kolkata.A beaming  BCCI President Sourav Ganguly, who has been  passionately  pleading for Day & Night Cricket Test match in India, has confirmed the test match between the two neighbouring countries from November  22 to 26. The long awaited test match is expected to begin at least an hour early than the usual 1430 hours IST, Cricket Association of Bengal secretary Avishek Dalmiya told media. The CAB is also trying its best to make it a full house in the 68,000-capacity stadium on all the five days by offering a daily ticket starting as low as Rs 50.Hosts CAB said they would seek BCCI’s clearance for a 1300 hrs or 1300 hrs IST start keeping in mind of the dew factor and the spectators’ convenience.”One can expect an early start than the usual day/night encounters. It will not be a 2.30pm start. 1.30pm start would mean the match would get over by 8.30pm and the spectators will return home early,” CAB secretary Avishek Dalmiya told PTI.”We will send the tickets for printing as we get the timing confirmation from BCCI and broadcasters. We are planning to bring in school children from the districts and local schools and we don’t want any inconvenience.”Ticket denominations will be of Rs 50, 100, 150 on a daily basis. We will try our best to pull in as much crowd as possible. We hope it will be a success,” Dalmiya added. Ganguly has gone on record saying facilities will be made in Eden Gardens to make Day & Night Test an annual event. India Today says “ Notably, India and Bangladesh along with Afghanistan and Ireland are the only teams to have not played a day-night Test yet. Since the 1st-ever day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand in 2015, 11 more have been played. As per the current ICC Playing Conditions, day-night matches can be held by the host country only with “with the agreement of the Visiting Board. India were expected to play a day-night Test in Adelaide last year but the BCCI were not open to the idea of playing pink-ball Test. India had had experimented with pink-ball cricket in Duleep Trophy between 2016 and 2018 before the first-class tournament returned to red-ball format for the 2019 season, added India Today.Meanwhile, Bangladesh captain and star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan has been suspended for two years by the ICC for failing to report three corrupt approaches, including one at the IPL, by a suspected Indian bookie. He will not play in the day and night test match in India. The one-year ban that he has to serve will keep him out of next year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) and also the World T20 to be held in Australia from October 18 to November 15 the same year.In his absence, senior-most player Mushfiqur Rahim might lead the team in Tests while one among Mahmudullah Riyadh Mosaddek Hosain is set to be the skipper in the three T20 Internationals.(edited by PK Chakravarty)

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