PIX: Starry affair at Eden Gardens

The Eden Gardens have been an exciting venue. Bollywood diva Rani Mukherjee came to witness the historic pink-ball Test and to promote her upcoming film ‘Mardani 2’.

The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) left no stone unturned to make the occasion a memorable one.

Later, Bengali actor-turned-politician Nusrat Jahan made an appearance at the Kolkata’s Eden Gardens to watch the first-ever day-night Test between India and Bangladesh. Nusrat’s husband Nikhil Jain was pictured alongside her at the stadium. 

India women cricketer Jhulan Goswami thanked Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly for felicitating her on the historic day-night Test.

After the conclusion of play on day one, various sportsperson including Goswami, Mithali Raj, tennis star Sania Mirza, World Championships winner PV Sindhu, and boxing great MC Mary Kom were felicitated.

"Thank you Dada and @BCCI for the felicitation on the occasion of the historic #PinkBallTestMatch at the Eden. @SGanguly99 @MamataOfficial," Goswami tweeted.

Women's ODI skipper Mithali Raj also thanked Ganguly for felicitating her and said it was a humbling experience to share the stage with greats of the game.

Mithali shared the video of felicitation on her Twitter account and captioned the post as: "First pink ball test match. Humbling experience to be honoured alongside fellow greats of the game. A big thank you to BCCI and BCCI president @SGanguly99 for this honour".

During the tea break on the first day of the Test, many legends were seen taking a lap of honour at the Eden Gardens.

Among the men's cricketers, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Kapil Dev, Anil Kumble, Krishnamachari Srikkanth, Dilip Vengsarkar and Mohammad Azharuddin took a lap around the 'Mecca of Indian cricket' and were seen waving around the ground.

After being reluctant for four years, India finally embraced the Day/Night format for Test cricket, following a strong push from Ganguly.