World T20 diary, Day 2: A decade hence, Kolkata is still just as enchanting

Osman Samiuddin returns to the eastern Indian city – the venue of Saturday's India-Pakistan World T20 showdown – after 11 years to find it has lost none of its old-world charm.

An Indian Cricket fan sports a haircut in national colours as fans wait for tickets for the World Twenty20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan outside the Eden Gardens ground in Kolkata, easterShow more

Day 2: March 18, 2016, Kolkata

My first and only time to Kolkata before this trip was in 2005 and I was, it is safe to say, absolutely enchanted by it.

It is difficult not to be in a city that takes its history so seriously, a city where so many buildings and monuments stubbornly stand as testament to history. I could not get over the fact that it had a running tramline.

India and Pakistan played out a wonderful Test, too, the toughness of which may not be apparent in the bottom-line of a 195-run Indian win.

Eden Gardens was a monumental venue and walking across the massive Maidan to it, on a busy day, felt vaguely like walking through the grass and mud of Glastonbury.

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Eleven years on, in 2016, not much seems to have changed, at least in central Kolkata or at Eden Gardens. Across that distance of time you can often see very visible signs of progress in cities.

In just over a day in the city centre, I have not seen too many of those signs (though that is not to say they are not there). The trams are still there, no doubt carrying some of the same passengers I may have seen in 2005.

The metro system has expanded and a new line being built shadows the long route from the airport to the city.

Eden Gardens looks the same, too, though it has undergone renovation. The joke was that I might find the same cigarette butt in the same spot I had seen it back then.

But like the city itself, I do not mind that it looks the same. It gives it a wonderful sense of itself and a distinct identity. Progress and modernisation is wonderful and necessary. But sometimes watching the forces of preservation and history win modern battles is a refreshing sight, too.

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