A group of youngsters was protesting in front of the Eden Gardens on Saturday. The angry young men and women though weren't making a noise about the historic venue losing its right to host a marquee World Cup match.
Forget India and England, their ire was about Dada (Sourav Ganguly) being left out of the Indian Premier League.
In hindsight, it appears that this inability to get priorities right led to Cricket Association of Bengal's (CAB) missing three deadlines to complete reconstruction work at Eden and hence losing out.
Even on Saturday afternoon, Chitrak Mitra who is in charge of the construction work at Eden said: "Work will be complete on February 7 and we will stick to our word."
The CAB joint-secretary, Biswarup Dey, echoed Mitra even as huge tubular structures, which would hold the roof of the stands, were being moved around for installation.
Little hope
It just might be a little too late for Eden, which may now also lose the three remaining matches - South Africa-Ireland (March 15), Netherlands-Ireland (March 18) and Zimbabwe-Kenya (March 20).
But though Emirates Sports Packages, an ICC-designated tour operator, has listed the venue for the India-England tie as TBC (to be confirmed), the CAB is not willing to let go just yet. After a long meeting in the evening with top CAB officials and engineers at his business office, president Jagmohan Dalmiya met Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. It could be a last-ditch effort to put in a word through Mukherjee to the International Cricket Council (ICC) president and his cabinet colleague Sharad Pawar.
{{/usCountry}}But though Emirates Sports Packages, an ICC-designated tour operator, has listed the venue for the India-England tie as TBC (to be confirmed), the CAB is not willing to let go just yet. After a long meeting in the evening with top CAB officials and engineers at his business office, president Jagmohan Dalmiya met Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee. It could be a last-ditch effort to put in a word through Mukherjee to the International Cricket Council (ICC) president and his cabinet colleague Sharad Pawar.
{{/usCountry}}This follows a request from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Shashank Manohar to reconsider the decision being turned down by ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat.
"We have not given up hope and we are making a concerted effort to convince the ICC and get the India-England match back," said Dey after the evening's meeting.
The state government too has jumped in to help. It was learnt that chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattarjee has instructed state urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya to form a committee with state sports minister Kanti Ganguly and Sourav Ganguly and meet Pawar.