JOIN USA trip of nostalgia at Eden Gardens
A stroll around Kolkata will reveal names such as Sir Stuart Hogg Market, Rippon Building, Hastings Court and Delhousie Trade Centre, the embossed year of construction dating back to mid-1800s or early 1900s.
As you approach the Benoy Badal Dinesh Marg, another sprawling, imposing piece of real estate welcomes a visitor.
In fact, the central Kolkata skyline is incomplete without those iconic floodlights. Step in then to the Eden Gardens, and be a part of its 150th birthday celebrations.
The Cricket Association of Bengal brought together a clutch of classy players from the past to mark the occasion.
On Tuesday, Ajit Wadekar, B S Chandrasekhar, EAS Prasanna, Bishan Singh Bedi, Dilip Vengsarkar and Michael Holding, individuals who had played at the Eden Gardens, came together for a special commemorative function.
Vengsarkar, an elegant middle-order batsman, remembered fondly his visits to the Eden.
“It was at this venue I scored my first Test hundred. It was in 1978 against the West Indies. Of course, some of the finest from West Indies were not in that team as they were part of the Kerry Packer series. Holding was absent and some others too.“Still they had some good bowlers like Silvester Clarke, and a young Malcolm Marshall. I came in as an opener with Sunil Gavaskar and scored 157. My Test career got a move on from that stage as I was not able to get a big score until then,” said Vengsarkar.
For Wadekar, playing at Eden was an experience far beyond personal landmarks.
The former India skipper said the hospitality and passion of Kolkatans blew him away every time he visited this venue.
“I have seen and played at so many great venues like the Lord’s and Sabina Park. But I have never experienced such hospitality as I had here. The passion of the crowd is same whether it is an inter-institutional match, a Ranji match or an international match. I remember the crowd go berserk after we lost our match against the West Indies and Australia in the 60s. West Indies side had so many great players like Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Wes Hall and Charlie Griffith.“But crowd’s reasoning was beyond all those cricketing facts, they just wanted us to win and it didn’t happen. So, there was a massive protest inside and outside the stadium. Imagine, facing the anger of some 1.5 lakh fans!,” he noted with a smile.
Holding played just one Test match at the Eden, in 1983. But the legendary West Indian fast bowler has only bright memories.
“From a personal point of view, I earned a lot friends in this part of the world during that trip,” he said.
“From a cricketing point of view, it was just one Test but I enjoyed playing in front of a large crowd, and I always wanted to play here in India. In 1971, I have watched the Indians playing at the Sabina Park. Of course, I was a schoolboy who skipped the class to watch India playing against the West Indies, and those days West Indies didn’t lose too many Test matches,” said Holding with a booming laughter.
Chandrasekhar too shared his memories of playing at the Eden. “I remember Eden not for five-for or six-for or seven-for, but for that 51-run alliance with Bapu Nadkarni against England in 1964. The top and middle-order were gone for not much and we rose to the occasion, and I can never forget it.”