Beyond cricket: How Eden Gardens gave 1,500 children a night of belonging

The boy had never seen a night like this before.

For years, 12-year-old Raju had grown up in the narrow lanes of Kolkata’s red-light district, where darkness arrives early and hope often disappears before midnight. Cricket, for him, meant catching glimpses of matches on television sets placed inside crowded tea stalls or listening to excited voices spilling out from nearby homes. Eden Gardens was a place he knew only through stories.

But on Sunday night, as the floodlights illuminated the iconic stadium and nearly 60,000 voices erupted around him, the child sat frozen in wonder. His eyes widened as giant screens flashed, music thundered through the stands, and the Kolkata Knight Riders walked onto the field to face Delhi Capitals in what became KKR’s final IPL match of the season.

For the first time in his life, he was inside Eden Gardens.

“I thought the stars had come down to earth,” he whispered softly to a volunteer sitting beside him.

Raju was among nearly 1,500 children and individuals with special needs, visual impairments, autism and vulnerable social backgrounds who were brought to the stadium free of cost through an initiative led by Kolkata Police inspector Subrata Das, officer-in-charge of the city police’s Dial 100 emergency response unit.

What unfolded inside Eden Gardens on Sunday went far beyond cricket. It became an evening of dignity, inclusion and joy — and for many children, a memory powerful enough to outshine years of hardship.

Das spent weeks coordinating with organisations, police personnel and volunteers after KKR extended around 1,500 tickets for the match.

“The objective was simple — no child should feel excluded from experiences that bring happiness and create memories. Witnessing the joy on their faces made every effort worthwhile,” Das said.

Throughout the evening, police personnel took on roles far beyond crowd management. Officers held the hands of autistic children while guiding them carefully through the noisy galleries. Several escorted visually impaired boys to toilets and food counters. Others helped wheelchair-bound visitors navigate ramps and crowded passages.

Inside the lower tier of the D Block, the atmosphere felt unlike a regular IPL evening. Blind students from Narendrapur clapped in rhythm with the Eden roar, responding to every wicket and boundary through sound, vibration and commentary from friends beside them. Autistic children waved KKR flags with unfiltered excitement, while children from shelter homes shouted themselves hoarse as chants echoed through the stadium.

For many guardians, the experience was deeply emotional.

The mother of a non-verbal autistic child said she had spent days preparing her son for the visit by showing him photographs and videos of Eden Gardens.

“He looked back at me with a spark in his eyes after watching the videos. When he finally entered the stadium and saw the lights and the ground, he was spellbound,” she said.

Autism Society West Bengal representative Sudip Kanti Ghosh said many of the children had never imagined entering a venue like Eden Gardens.

“This is a unique initiative. Our children are super excited. We had shown them videos beforehand, but when they reached the venue and saw the stadium for real, they could not believe it,” he said.

Among those invited were around 100 visually impaired individuals, many of whom regularly follow IPL commentary on mobile phones. Society for the Welfare of the Blind principal Biswajit Ghosh said the invitation meant the world to the students.

“Our boys follow cricket passionately. But experiencing Eden Gardens in person was unimaginable for many of them. They may not see the match like others do, but they feel the excitement through the sound and atmosphere,” he said.

As Delhi Capitals lost their first wicket, the famous Eden roar exploded across the stadium. The visually impaired students instantly jumped up in celebration along with everyone around them.

A teenage boy from Future Hope, who captains a cricket team run by the organisation, summed up the night simply:

“This was a completely different experience for me.”

Several NGOs and organisations joined hands to make the initiative possible, including Child In Need Institute, The Hope Foundation, Autism Bengal, Future Hope and the Blind Cricket Association of Bengal.

Dilip Bose of Child In Need Institute (CINI) said many children came from backgrounds where dreams are often restricted by poverty.

“Our children never get opportunities like this. They always dream of seeing their cricket heroes in person. Yesterday, that dream became real,” he said.

For Subrata Das, however, the evening carried a meaning beyond recognition or organisation.

“It comes from within,” he said quietly when asked how he managed such an enormous effort alongside his police duties. “I feel blessed to be able to do this.”

By the end of the night, KKR’s playoff hopes had faded after Rajasthan Royals defeated Mumbai Indians elsewhere.

But inside Eden Gardens, none of that seemed to matter.

Because while one cricket season may have ended, hundreds of children who had spent much of their lives battling exclusion, silence, darkness or abandonment returned home carrying something they rarely receive from society — the feeling that they belonged.