The ongoing Day-Night pink-ball Test at Eden Gardens is certainly the talk of the town. But not everybody is convinced with it.

Michael Holding, for example. The West Indies pace legend is not at all a fan of Day-Night Tests. For Holding, the entire concept is nothing more than a gimmick.

“I am simply not a fan of either Day-Night cricket nor using a pink ball… Too many gimmicks for me. Just don’t like them,” Holding told The Telegraph.

India captain Virat Kohli, before the match, had said that public entertainment shouldn’t be the sole objective of Test cricket. Holding not just agrees with what Kohli said, but adds that Day-Night Tests in a way denigrates Test cricket.

“I definitely agree with what Kohli has said. As I said, there are too many gimmicks, and that’s not for Test cricket. Keep the gimmicks for coloured clothing and stop denigrating Test cricket,” he fumed.

Holding belongs to a time when Test cricket flourished. During his visit to India in 2014, Holding had been invited to a discussion where his opinion on T20 cricket was sought. “I thought we were talking cricket here,” was Holding’s prompt reply to that question.

However, Rahul Dravid took a more lenient view. Dravid, who was present at the Eden on Friday as a special guest, feels Kohli’s words didn’t suggest that he was critical of pink-ball Tests.

“No, no… He didn’t criticise it. Please don’t put words in my mouth. He was very supportive of it and I think the concept is a great idea,” Dravid, current head of the NCA, said.

Having matches before a packed house is something that really matters, and if pink-ball Tests are successful in making that happen, Dravid is all for it. He said: “I really hope we can do this more often and have this kind of crowd, which is truly amazing. If there were pink-ball Tests during my time, I definitely would have enjoyed it. What matters to me is playing before a sizeable crowd.”

Mohammed Azharuddin feels pink-ball Tests have to be more frequent and can’t be a one-off affair. “It needs to be frequent. I think there has to be at least one pink-ball Test in every series so that players get used to it,” the former captain assessed.

For Kris Srikkanth, the game was “another excellent occasion for Test cricket.”

“I witnessed Azharuddin’s debut as I was the 12th man of that match. Azhar had hit a brilliant century in that game and the Eden crowd went crazy watching him bat. Today as well, I got that kind of a flavour. No wonder it’s an excellent occasion for Test cricket,” former captain and chief selector Srikkanth said.

Farokh Engineer, though, gave a different view on the matter. “Looking at the bounce and movement of this pink ball, just imagine how it would be had the Windies legends we faced bowled with it…” the former wicketkeeper-batsman commented.