West Bengal CM intervenes to bring back Eden match
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today intervened to bring back the India-England World Cup match, scheduled to be held on February 27, to the Eden Gardens.
Buddhadeb asked two of his ministers to get in touch with the former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly and put in all possible efforts in order to bring the match back to the city.
"The Chief Minister has said that it is not the time to point fingers at those because of who the match has been shifted from here on the instructions of the ICC. He has urged to put in an all-out effort to bring back the match to Eden Gardens," State Sports Minister Kanti Ganguly told PTI here.
State's Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharya also said that he along with the Sports Minister and Sourav Ganguly, would meet the ICC Chief Sharad Pawar and ask him to plead with the international cricket body to change their decision of scrapping Eden Gardens as a venue for India-England match.
"We have sought an appointment with Pawar and our date of journey will be finalised accordingly," Bhattacharya said.
"Since it involves the emotion of millions of cricket lovers of West Bengal, maximum efforts will be put in to see that the match is held at the Eden Gardens. In fact, if necessary, the match might be rescheduled," the minister added.
Meanwhile, Ganguly said he had talks with Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) President Jagmohan Dalmiya this afternoon and asked him to continue the efforts to bring back the match to Kolkata."The state government is ready to extend all-out support to the CAB in this regard," Ganguly added.
Dalmiya has already appealed to the ICC through the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) to extend the deadline for the completion of work at Eden Gardens till February 7.
