India vs West Indies | Sachin Tendulkar will ring bell before for fourth ODI at CCI

The tradition of ringing the bell ahead of the start of day’s play in cricket tracks back to the iconic Lord’s stadium in England, which is also regarded as the birthplace of cricket. Since then, the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata and the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai have also adopted this tradition. Sachin Tendulkar, regarded as one of the finest cricketers to ever take the field, has been chosen to ring the bell before the fourth ODI between India and West Indies on October 29 at CCI. After much controversy, the Cricket Club of India will host its first international match after a gap of nine years. 

"The proceedings will begin by Tendulkar ringing the bell. We've a special relationship with him. We broke our rules to give him playing membership when he was just 15 - only those above 18 could enter our dressing room. Now, his son Arjun plays for our club, something which Sachin himself was keen about. Arjun also went with the CCI team to Australia for a tournament in January.

"It was Tendulkar's idea to name something at CCI after Rajsingh Dungarpur (former CCI and BCCI president), and when we decided to do it, we waited for three months before he gave us a date on which he inaugurated it. He's confirmed his presence for this ceremony too. We have former cricketers ringing the bell before play in warm-up games, but this is the first time we'll be starting this legacy," a source in CCI told TOI on Monday.

This will serve as a consolation to the Master Blaster who was also in line to ring the bell at Lord’s earlier this year during India’s tour of UK. However, the opening day of the second Test between India and England was disrupted due to rain and took away Tendulkar’s privilege.

"Was all set to ring the bell at Lord's to start off the 2nd Test today, but unfortunately the weather had other plans. Hopefully, we'll get to see some good cricket over the next four days," Sachin posted on Twitter in August.

"We were supposed to launch the ticket sales today, but we wanted the tickets to be available at a cheaper rate for the fans, so we revised our ticket rates today. We want the Mumbaikars to enjoy this match, we've reduced our revenue. We've a capacity of 22,557. Around 600 tickets will go to our members. Barring complimentary tickets of the BCCI (604, as per the agreement), the rest will be put up on sale," said the source.