Eden Gardens to have Lord's like 'Bell'

The historically significant bell located outside the Bowlers’ Bar of the Lord’s Pavilion has been an iconic part of the venue’s long cricketing tradition. The bell is rung for five minutes to signify the start of play and it is a great honour for any cricketer or administrator to be invited to ring the bell.

The Eden Gardens is all set to get a ‘bell’ like the one that hangs at the hallowed Lord’s ground in London, Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) president Sourav Ganguly said on Saturday.

It has become a great honour to be invited to ring it on the morning of a Test match and the tradition which began in 2007 has seen many Indian legends ring the bell with Ganguly himself having the privilege of doing it once in 2014.

“Yes, we are getting such a bell which will be installed at the Eden Gardens. Every morning it will be rung by a cricketer from either side or ex-players. The bell is being imported and should be in place by September,” the former India skipper told reporters.

A ‘Fan Zone’ will also be created where kids can play and spend time with their families starting from the India-New Zealand Test match in September. To bring more corporates into the Tests, the CAB has also decided to hand them tickets for the games. School, University students are also set to get free tickets, 10 percent of the total amount.

The iconic Eden Gardens, a witness to many firsts, saw ‘Day-Night’ cricket with Pink Ball make its debut in a CAB Super League final between Mohun Bagan and Bhowanipore, where the seamers got good help from the 22-yard strip compared to spinners. For the sake of statistics, Mohun Bagan scored 276 for 8 in 85.2 overs when stumps were drawn. Former India U-19 World Cupper Ravikant Singh, representing Bhowanipore, was skiddy and got some movement with both new ball and second new ball ending with three wickets.