Kolkata, April 24: Probably Sachin Tendulkar could be remembered as the last person before him in this discussion. The packed stadium at Eden Gardens here turned simply frantic after watching Sachin stepping onto the field, whether going to bat or going to field. A roaring sound used to spin around the circle of the stadium when Tendulkar moved forward from the dressing room.
A similar sound like "Sachin….Sachin…Sachin" started going around the Eden Gardens on Sunday evening (April 23) when the packed stadium watched Virat Kohli stepping onto the field with a bat before the IPL 2017 match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). The crowd seemed to be hysterical. (Furious Kohli blames 'one guy' for golden duck)
It seemed as if KKR were playing at RCB's home. The people at Eden Gardens had only one dream, to see Kohli from very close and the people also started chanting towards the security persons as well as towards the police officers in charge, asking them to bring Kohli near the fence at least for once before the match.
The jubilant spectators also had another demand and that was unprecedented. Since the recent India-New Zealand Test series this season, Eden Gardens has introduced a big bell.
Former cricketers or celebrities are invited to ring the bell to inaugurate the match. Virender Sehwag and Michael Clarke were invited to ring the bell in recent times.
But on Sunday, an exceptional scenario was noticed at the iconic stadium. Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), which invites celebrities, was almost forced to call Kohli at the last moment before the beginning of the match to ring the bell.
It was a rare incident, admitted a senior CAB official as captains of the visiting teams in the ongoing IPL have not generally been invited to ring the bell. But only due to tremendous popularity of Kohli, the RCB captain rang the bell and ran towards ground.
But Eden crowd was left disappointed by Kohli's batting as he was dismissed for a golden duck. RCB were bowled out for a record low of 49 as KKR won by 82 runs.
OneIndia News