New Delhi // India will witness its first ever multi-day pink ball game at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens from Saturday, a possible precursor to a day-night Test later this year in the world’s richest cricket market.
The four-day match is an inter-club final between Mohun Bagan and Bhowanipore Club which is being hosted by the Cricket Association of Bengal, headed by former India skipper Sourav Ganguly.
The success of the experiment is expected to have a bearing on efforts by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to host a day-night pink ball Test against New Zealand in October.
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“Time has come to market Test cricket in a better way (to bring back the fans),” Ganguly, who sat alongside former Australian batsman Dean Jones and India’s VVS Laxman at a promotional event on Thursday, was quoted as saying by the Indian Express website.
“Just think about Virat Kohli facing Jimmy Anderson in a pink ball Test -- the spectacle it will present. Let’s see the problem, address it and try to fix it with the technology we have.”
The Kolkata club match will be broadcast live in India with many prominent former Indian cricketers providing commentary.
The BCCI also announced earlier this month that the domestic Duleep Trophy tournament in September will be played under lights with a pink ball for the first time.
Australia and New Zealand played the inaugural day-night Test in Adelaide last year, attracting huge crowds in what was a boost to the struggling five-day format.
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
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Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
