West Bengal CM intervenes to bring back Eden match

Kolkata, Jan 29 (PTI) West Bengal Chief MinisterBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee today intervened to bring back theIndia-England World Cup match, scheduled to be held onFebruary 27, to the Eden Gardens.

Buddhadeb asked two of his ministers to get in touch withthe former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly and put in allpossible efforts in order to bring the match back to the city.

"The Chief Minister has said that it is not the timeto point fingers at those because of who the match has beenshifted from here on the instructions of the ICC. He has urgedto put in an all-out effort to bring back the match to EdenGardens," State Sports Minister Kanti Ganguly told PTI here.

State''s Urban Development Minister Ashok Bhattacharyaalso said that he along with the Sports Minister and SouravGanguly, would meet the ICC Chief Sharad Pawar and ask him toplead with the international cricket body to change theirdecision of scrapping Eden Gardens as a venue forIndia-England match.

"We have sought an appointment with Pawar and our date ofjourney will be finalised accordingly," Bhattacharya said.

"Since it involves the emotion of millions of cricketlovers of West Bengal, maximum efforts will be put in to seethat the match is held at the Eden Gardens. In fact, ifnecessary, the match might be rescheduled," the ministeradded.

Meanwhile, Ganguly said he had talks with CricketAssociation of Bengal (CAB) President Jagmohan Dalmiya thisafternoon and asked him to continue the efforts to bring backthe match to Kolkata.

"The state government is ready to extend all-outsupport to the CAB in this regard," Ganguly added.

Dalmiya has already appealed to the ICC through theIndian Cricket Board (BCCI) to extend the deadline for thecompletion of work at Eden Gardens till February 7.