Matthew Hayden's absurd way of ringing the bell leaves Bhogle and Karthik in splits

Last year, a Lord’s-like bell was introduced at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata to signify the imminent start of play in the match. India’s World Cup winning captain Kapil Dev was the first person to get the honour of ringing the bell. The tradition has been followed ever since.

Ahead of the start of play on the second day of the 1st Test between Indian and Sri Lanka, the honour of ringing the bell was given to former Australian great Matthew Hayden. Instead of being gentle, the explosive Aussie ended up yanking the bell out of its place.

When the video was played later, commentators Harsha Bhogle and Murali Kartik burst into laughter. Bhogle couldn’t help but describe how Hayden went hard on the bells only to stop after a while and realize the job is done. He put it up as, “yank the bell out of its location at the Eden Gardens”.

However, Hayden went on to defend his yanking saying that it was a large bell and deserved a good push. “The last thing you want is a bell ring that just gives you a chime. It’s a massive bell and surely you can give it a good nudge,”

He further hilariously remarked, “It was not actually me that. I think there was a puppeteer on top of me,” as Harsha Bhogle and Murali Kartik continued to share a laugh over it.

The honour of marking the start of the game was taken by VVS Laxman on Day 1. The former Indian batsman has great memories at Eden Gardens where he scored his highest Test score of 281 against Australia in 2001. India managed to win that game despite being forced to follow-on. That game is widely regarded as one of the greatest Test matches played.

Cricket Association of Bengal shared a picture of Hayden marking the start of the match proceedings:

.@HaydosTweets rings the bell at #EdenGardens at the start of the match today.#INDvSL #CAB pic.twitter.com/9XSCrjVy6n

— CABCricket (@CabCricket) November 17, 2017