A tale of two decades: how India and Bangladesh came to play the pink-ball Test

When we discuss the history of Bangladesh cricket, the late Jagmohan Dalmiya features prominently.

Between 1997 and 1999, Bangladesh Cricket Board bigwigs Saber Hossain Chowdhury and Syed Ashraful Haq spoke to Dalmiya again and again, explaining their ambition of becoming a Test-playing nation.

Dalmiya first agreed to send India to play the 1998 Independence Cup tri-series in Dhaka, before inviting Bangladesh to a tri-series in India a few months later. Dhaka soon became the venue for the ICC Knockout Cup (later the ICC Champions Trophy), and soon after their participation in the 1999 World Cup, the ICC sent a team led by Dr Ali Bacher to take stock of the situation in Bangladesh. The report was a favorable one, and with cricket diplomacy on in full swig, the vote in June 2000 went Bangladesh's way and they became a Full Member.

Were Bangladesh ready for Test cricket? Did Dalmiya do what he did for political gains? These are questions that have done the rounds endlessly over the years - especially when Bangladesh have faltered at the highest stage - but it's true that Dalmiya became such an important part of Bangladesh cricket that he was accorded motorcades more than once during his visits to Dhaka those days.

After England refused to be part of Bangladesh's inaugural Test, the BCCI stepped in and a match was set for November 10, 2000, in Dhaka.

Bangladesh's entry to the Test arena took place at a time of great upheaval in Indian cricket, with the corruption scandal hogging the headlines. Ganguly, just four years old in Test cricket, became the captain, and the Dhaka Test was his first as leader. He strode out for the toss with Bangladesh captain Naimur Rahman, with Sheikh Hasina, then in her first term as Bangladesh's prime minister, present on the first day.

Now the BCCI boss, Ganguly, arguably the most popular Indian cricketer in Bangladesh, has made the pink-ball Test happen within days of taking charge, and in attendance at what is a historic occasion will be Hasina, also the current prime minister, as well as a number of Bangladeshi players who were a part of the 2000 Test.

For much of Bangladesh's existence as a Test-playing nation, they have had to wait to play Test cricket in India. Particularly when India toured Bangladesh for bilateral series in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2014, the question of "when will Bangladesh tour India" was a running track. The BCCI never said it explicitly, but it was understood that they were not keen on hosting a side that didn't promise much on the field, or in terms of commerce.

But the 2014 agreements vis-a-vis the future tours programme effectively put the BCCI in a commitment to host Bangladesh, and by mid-2016 it was announced that in February 2017, Bangladesh would be playing their first Test in India. It was played in Hyderabad, and India won by 208 runs.

Five years before Ganguly's ascension as the BCCI head, Bangladesh's first proper bilateral tour to India took shape as part of a deal between the two cricket boards. Although it was much later that the schedule was set for November 2019, BCB chief Nazmul Hassan had confirmed in February 2014 itself that the board had signed a members' participation agreement with the BCCI for four India tours.

It was part of the negotiations that most boards had with the BCCI, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board after the Big Three developments came out in January that year. The BCB didn't immediately take sides and were initially very apprehensive of what appeared to it as something that wouldn't end well for Bangladesh. But in the weeks that followed, the negotiations resulted in agreements - and the BCCI has lived up to its promise on all of them.

Until their 2-1 ODI series win in 2015 at home, Bangladesh were down 33-3 in all international matches against India. The Mustafizur Rahman-inspired series win in Dhaka, however, remained a one-off as India have continued to be dominant in these contests. Still, Bangladesh have pushed them in the last three years, mainly in white-ball cricket, and there have been a number of last-over finishes - in Bengaluru, in Colombo and in Dubai, and they beat India for the first time in a T20I earlier this month.

But the improved on-field competition has resulted in somewhat nasty exchanges, at times, between the cricket fans of the two nations. Social media is often inundated with abuse between the two sets of supporters, so much so that Bangladesh ODI captain Mashrafe Mortaza had to call for calm ahead of their 2019 World Cup match in Birmingham.

Virat Kohli, reportedly, agreed to play the day-night Test in Kolkata within "three seconds" of Ganguly speaking to him about it, and Hassan didn't take much longer after his first conversation with his BCCI counterpart. But, while Hassan agreed in principle, he - and the board - left it to the Bangladesh players and team management to take the final decision during their training camp in Mirpur in late October. Within 24 hours of huge upheaval in Bangladesh cricket, the team came on board.