India, Bangladesh to play first day-night Test in Kolkata

KOLKATA: India will take on Bangladesh in both nations’ first ever day-night test match, to be played at Eden Gardens in Kolkata from Nov. 22 to 26 as the second game of a two-match series. Newly appointed Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly, a long-time supporter of day-night tests, first proposed the idea to home side captain Virat Kohli before speaking with Bangladesh Cricket Board officials.

“Day-night test cricket is a huge step forward and we believe it will bring back the crowd into stadiums and a whole lot of young children to the sport,” Ganguly said in a statement yesterday. Bangladesh will be without their all-rounder captain Shakib Al Hasan, who was banned from all cricket for at least a year yesterday after he was found to have breached the International Cricket Council’s Anti-Corruption code. Ganguly said the match would help support test cricket, the longest format of the game, which has seen dwindling audiences in recent years.

“Test cricket is of utmost priority, and we at BCCI will leave no stone unturned to bring this format back to its feet,” the former India captain said.

India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ireland are the only teams among the 12 test-playing nations to have not yet played day-night Tests. One of the major concerns for Bangladesh will be the lack of match practice with the pink balls used in day-night games, having only played one first class match with them in the country in February 2013. — AFP