Sourav Ganguly pink ball pioneer

New Delhi : "The reality is that Test cricket is faced with challenges such as declining crowd attendances in some countries, as well as issues of context and competition for attention from shorter formats of the game," ICC Chief Executive David Richardson had said before the first Day-Night Test which took place between Australia and New Zealand from November 27 in 2015.

Since then, 11 pink-ball Test matches have been played involving, Australia, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies. The BCCI though backed the team which wasn''t too keen to take the challenge as they felt that they needed time to practice with the pink ball under lights before taking the challenge on the world stage.

Requests from the ECB and Cricket Australia were turned down by the BCCI. But all that changed with former India skipper Sourav Ganguly being appointed new BCCI President. He first convinced skipper Virat Kohli to take up the challenge and then sent in a request to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) and convinced them to turn the second Test of the two-match series at the Eden Gardens into a day-night affair.

However, a question that comes to mind is what made the otherwise reluctant Indian team to agree to play pink ball cricket?

One of the major reasons could be the lack of crowd in the just concluded three-game Test series against South Africa. The lack of crowd prompted Kohli to moot for five strong Test venues across the country. "This is the beginning of something special in Indian cricket. For me, as former captain of India and as the current President of BCCI, Test cricket is of utmost priority and we at BCCI will leave no stone unturned to bring this format back to its feet," said Ganguly after BCB agreed for the Test.