CALCUTTA, 11 November 2004 — World Cup-winning Imran Khan of Pakistan and Kapil Dev of India will top a host of cricket captains to be honored at a one-day match between the two nations at the Eden Gardens here on Saturday, officials said.
Imran, Kapil and 17 other captains from both countries will be honored during the dinner break of the match being organized as part of the 75th year celebrations of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
BCCI supremo Jagmohan Dalmiya said the captains will be among a capacity crowd of 85,000 spectators who will witness Saurav Ganguly’s Team India play Inzamam ul-Haq’s Pakistan in the 50-overs-a-side day-night game. Kapil led India to victory in the 1983 World Cup in England, while Imran’s team won the most coveted prize in the sport in Australia in 1992.
Among the Indian captains attending the match will be current stars Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar.
The others will be Nari Contractor, Chandu Borde, Ajit Wadekar, Srinivas Venkatraghavan, Bishan Bedi, Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath, Dilip Vengsarkar, Ravi Shastri and Krishnamachari Srikkanth.
The Pakistan Cricket Board is sending former captains Hanif Mohammed, Imtiaz Ahmed, Intikhab Alam and Zaheer Abbas for the match.
“There cannot be a better way to celebrate 75 years of the Indian board than a match between India and Pakistan,” Dalmiya said.
“After all, when the board was formed in 1929, India and Pakistan were one country.”
There will be tight security at the match, Pakistan’s first on Indian soil since 1999 when political tensions between the South Asian rivals halted their cricketing ties.
Trouble erupted in the Eden Gardens stand during the 1999 Test match, forcing police to clear the galleries on the last day as Pakistan galloped toward victory.
