Abhinav Bindra, Mary Kom likely to share stage at Eden Gardens

CHANDIGARH: Ending the war of words between India's celebrated Olympic medallists Abhinav Bindra and MC Mary Kom over the former's support to young boxer Nikhat Zareen's demand for a trial bout against Mary, the two champions could be seen sharing the stage at the Eden Gardens next month.
Bindra had earlier tweeted in support of the Hyderabadi boxer Nikhat's demands to the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) to conduct a trial bout against Mary for a berth in 51kg, the Olympic weight division.
"While I have all the respect for Marykom, Fact is, an athlete's life is an offering of proof. Proof that we can be as good as yesterday. Better than yesterday. Better than tomorrows man /woman. In sport, yesterday NEVER counts," Bindra wrote on his twitter handle," Bindra had tweeted.
Asking for the same, Nikhat had also wrote a letter to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju after the BFI hinted that there would no trial between her and Mary Kom in the 51kg category for participating in the Tokyo Olympic qualifiers in Wuhan from February 3 to 14.
Bindra's support to the youngster, however, did not go down too well with Mary, who had strongly rebutted, saying the ace shooter should not get involved in boxing as he is not well versed about the rules of the sport.
"This is not his business to involve in boxing. He doesn't know anything about boxing. I don't talk about shooting. He doesn't know about the rules and also the point systems," said Mary, who became the first boxer in the world, male or female, to win eight medals at the World Championships held recently.
According to sources in the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has plans to felicitate India's only individual gold medallist shooter Bindra, London bronze medallist Mary Kom and Rio silver medallist PV Sindhu on the sidelines of the day-night second Test between India and Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
The CAB sources further revealed that the idea behind the felicitation event was to recognise the achievements of the three Olympic medallists as part of Eden's annual Pink Ball Test.
India will take on Bangladesh on November 22 as part of their two-Test series on home soil, at the Eden Gardens. Newly-elected BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has proposed to the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) that the Test be a pink-ball one played under floodlights.
The CAB also has plans to invite school children and providing them free passes for the game.