T20 World Cup: Eden Gardens hopes fans will turn up for league games

Eden Gardens, the historic venue which hosted the 2016 T20 World Cup final, will be hoping for a decent turnout in the so-called 'low-profile' league matches for this year's edition — none of them featuring India — from Saturday, 7 February. Two-time champions West Indies, who won the pulsating final against England at Eden last time, will open their campaign against Scotland on Saturday.

Scotland, an associate ICC member country better known for its football legends, made an eleventh hour entry as a replacement for Bangladesh as the latter refused to relent on its demand for a relocation of its matches from India after the Mustafizur Rahman controversy.

Selected on the basis of their 13th ranking in the ICC T20 list just after the 12 full-member countries, captain Mark Watt’s underdogs have often pulled off the odd surprise, but it remains to be seen whether they can woo a large enough audience.

The familiar buzz around the venue was missing as Scotland arrived for a morning practice session, while Shai Hope’s West Indies — a team which enjoys an emotional connect with the Eden audience — is scheduled to hit the nets in the evening.

England and debutants Italy are the two other teams scheduled to play two of their league games at the venue, while Suryakumar Yadav & Co. are expected to play one Super Eight game here on 1 March. The first semi-final on 4 March is, however, scheduled for Kolkata or Colombo, the latter should Pakistan make it to the last four.

‘’It’s a World Cup where all matches are important and we hope for the crowd to turn up. The last time Eden hosted the 2016 edition, Sourav Ganguly was also the president and the team has worked extremely hard for the last two to three months,’’ Sanjoy Das, treasurer of hosts Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), said.

Meanwhile, Scotland skipper Watt recalled how they had to prepare within a short notice. ‘’We didn't know this was going to be happening. It’s probably all come together in the past 10 days. So prep wise, it is what it is and we’re ready to go now. We’ve had a great week here in India,’’ he said at the pre-match media interaction.

‘’I think, as you said, we’ve got a lot of youngsters in our team at the moment. I mean, how more excited could they be? They were sitting in their house doing nothing 10 days ago and now they’re in India at a World Cup. So it’s absolutely amazing for them. We’re all just so excited to be here and ready to go,’’ he added.

Matches at Eden: 7 February: WI vs Scotland; 9 Feb: Scotland vs Italy; 14 Feb: England vs Scotland; 16 Feb: England vs Italy; 19 Feb: West Indies vs Italy; 1 March: Super 8: (X1 vs X3). 4 March: First semi-final (Kolkata/Colombo)

Badshah, Nora Fatehi at opening ceremony

Badshah, a A-lister of Mumbai music industry and Nora Fatehi will perform gigs at a glittering opening ceremony for World T20 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Saturday.

 The ceremony will open with a musical medley from Rishab Sharma and Shivamani, before the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Trophy makes a spectacular arrival – where it will be greeted by Rohit Sharma, winning captain of 2024 edition, and ICC chairman Jay Shah.