December 04, 2007	Tuesday	Ziqa'ad 23, 1428

To watch a Test match at the Eden Gardens is a wonderful experience. The ‘City of Joy’ as it is called, Kolkata (Calcutta) has several famous landmarks. The age old ‘Howrah Bridge’ over the Hoogly river, the most imposing structure of the Victoria Memorial from the Raj overlooking the Eden Gardens, the majestic building of the High Court reminding us all of the past glory of colonial times and the start of the British rule of India through East India Company.

The Eden Gardens itself came into being in 1834 but the first Test played here was in 1934. Next to two famous football grounds of the city - the Mohammadan Sporting and Mohan Bagan - the cricket ground is located in the heart of the city. Like MCG in Melbourne, it is a huge arena which can easily hold about 100,000 people.

For me it evokes fond memories of my visits to this city and the ground during the past many years. From my first visit here in 1979 with Pakistan’s Asif Iqbal team to now, I have fortunately witnessed many memorable moments.

The first was the retirement of one of Pakistan’s finest cricketers, Asif Iqbal. In a drawn Test here he had decided to say goodbye to international cricket and when he ended his Test career with a run out, he walked back to a tumultuous ovation from almost 90,000 people.

It was a nerve-tickling experience as the crowd stood and cheered Asif while players from both the sides raised their bats to him.

In 1987, I covered the World Cup final in front of a packed to capacity crowd as Mike Gatting, the England captain, reverse swept his team to defeat against Australia.

But the most memorable of my visits to the Eden Gardens still remains the sight of watching Salim Malik taking the Indians apart and steering Pakistan to a glorious win from brink of disaster.

Pakistan ‘s plight was understandable as they lost five wickets for 161 chasing 241 in a One-day International with only eight overs remaining. Malik struck like lightening as he tore through the Indian attack to score 72 in 36 balls, blasting Kapil Dev for five consecutive fours in an over and adding another on the first ball of the next.

Every stroke that he played blazed the turf as it went past the cover or through the mid-wicket region. It was a mind-boggling performance that stunned the huge crowd at the ground as they hung their heads in submission and in awe of the knock.

What happened on my 1999 visit to Eden Gardens was bizarre to the core. It was the first ever Test of the Asian Test Championship on a tour where Pakistan had won a Test at Chennai and India levelled the two-match series with Kumble’s 10 wicket haul at Kotla in Delhi.

At Eden Park, India were set to make 279 to win. An opening stand of 108 between Sadagopan Ramesh and V.V.S. Laxman was a perfect start but wickets started to fall and when a throw from Nadeem Khan to bowler Shoaib Akhtar resulted in Tendulkar’s run out, the crowd resorted to violence .

They put on fire in the stands accusing Shoaib of impeding Tendulkar’s path as he went for the third run. The game was halted for 66 minutes before Tendulkar himself came in the ground to beg for calm. On the final day India still required 64 runs with four wickets in hand and home boy Ganguly still in the middle.

But when Ganguly was dismissed, Pakistan were well on their way to a win. Soon two more wickets fell for India and the defeat looked imminent for the hosts. The 50,000 crowd, unable to bear the humiliation, started to disrupt the match with fires around the stands, hoping that the Test would be abandoned.

The referee of the match, Cammie Smith would not tolerate anyof this. And would you believe it that the whole ground was evacuated by the police within an hour and a half to let the game continue and Pakistan grabbed the last wicket to register a victory by 46 runs. An unprecedented occurance of day’s play when not a single spectator was there to watch the game.

The empty stands at the Eden Gardens gave a haunted look as only the media and the police watched Pakistan achieve what they deserved.

Sadly, Eden now looks to me like a tired venue. The electrifying atmosphere at the ground seems to have faded away. The lack of star value of the Pakistan cricketers and too many encounters in too short a period may have taken the gloss off it, but Eden Gardens still remains one of my favourite venues.