India's iconic cricket stadium Eden Gardens has lit up its facade in blue, white and red, the French Tricolour, in a show of solidarity with last week's Paris terrorist attack victims.
The illumination was done yesterday and it will continue till the end of this month, Cricket Association of Bengal joint-secretary Avishek Dalmiya told PTI.
"It's our humble attempt to pay tribute to all those who lost their lives in the terror attacks in Paris and express concern on the growing magnitude of terrorism across the globe," Dalmiya said, adding that the illumination will be done every evening till 10 pm.
Earlier, city monuments Victoria Memorial and Shahid Minar were lit up in French Tricolour while a section of the Kolkatans came together and held a candle light vigil during the Kolkata International Film Festival that concluded yesterday.
More than a hundred people were killed while some 350 were injured in a series of co-ordinated terrorist attacks in the French capital on November 13.
Former BCCI president BN Dutt's name was also etched in
the H-Block with former English skipper Naseer Hussain switching on the name plate lights with a remote, while Ganguly did the honour for Dalmiya.
There was a walk down the memory lane as the giant screen played the footage of the four personalities when the ceremony was going on and it was Ganguly whose name plate was switched on by Kapil in the last part with the crowd cheering 'Dada, Dada'.
In totality, the Eden will have eight stands to be named after personalities which include two war heroes to be put forward by the Ministry of Defence.
The other two would be former cricketers JC Mukherjee and AN Ghosh and the formalities would be completed during the next international match at the venue.
"On the next match four other stands will be named after JC Mukherjee, AN Ghosh and two war heroes. The Army is yet to finalise the names of the war heroes," Ganguly said.
"In 2009 Jagmohan Dalmiya took the initiative but the Army did not give permission. We are thankful to the Ministry of Defence to have allowed us to do so," he added.
Ganguly thus joined the elite club of cricketers that include Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh (WACA); John Edrich and Dennis Compton (Lord's); Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Vijay Merchant (Wankhede) who have stands named after them.
Meanwhile, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar performed the Eden tradition of ringing the giant bell to signal the start of the match, something that was adopted from the iconic Lord's.
Following the 10-year-old tradition of Lord's, last year, Eden Gardens installed the silver coated bell under the Eden Clock and Kapil was the first to ring the bell to start the India-New Zealand second Test here from September 30-October 3.
