Nine winters ago, cricket used to be a headache for Dilara Hossain Ela, a homemaker in Dhaka. Fed up with her son’s obsession with the sport, she had snapped the cable connection at home ahead of his secondary exams.

On Wednesday afternoon, at the lobby of a Kyd Street hotel, Dilara and her son and daughter were anxiously waiting for tickets to the day-night Test — India’s first — at the Eden Gardens.

The three, who had flown in on Monday, had paid a hefty amount to an agent, who promised them three tickets for Friday and Saturday.

“There is a huge interest around this match in Bangladesh. We came early because I needed time to arrange for the tickets,” said Mohammed Muyeedur Rahman or Muyeed, Dilara’s 25-year-old son, a self-confessed cricket freak.

The family received the tickets on Thursday night.

The hotels in Kyd Street, Sudder Street, Free School Street and surrounding areas are expecting a rush in bookings from Bangladesh because of the Test.

“We have a steady stream of visitors from Bangladesh round the year. Over the past few days we have been getting many calls from people in Bangladesh who want to come to watch the match,” said the manager of a hotel on Free School Street.

Dilara lives with her family off New Elephant Road in Dhamondy, a thriving business hub in Dhaka. Her husband is a teacher.

“I was a child when Bangladesh played its first Test (in 2000) against India, in Dhaka. After the debut Test, this is going to be the most historic game for Bangladesh and I am super-excited to be part of it,” said Muyeed, a mechanical engineer who works with the Bangladeshi distributor of a US-based manufacturing company.

The players of the 2000 Test will be felicitated at Eden.

The family is not new to Calcutta but they have never been to Eden. “We had gone near the stadium on Tuesday. With a pink glow, the façade looked majestic,” said Elma Rahman, Muyeed’s sister and a first-year student of economics at Dhaka’s East West University.

When Muyeed was a student, Dilara was scared of cricket. “He would not move from near the TV when Bangladesh was playing. He would regularly get a beating from me, especially before exams,” said Dilara.

Before his secondary exams in 2010, Dilara had snapped the cable connection at home.

One day, she had gone to a relative’s house on an invitation. On her way back, she was shocked to see Muyeed standing in a huddle in front of a shop. She went closer and found the group glued to a TV screen in the shop.

“It was the 2010 Asia Cup. Shakib (Al Hasan) was the captain,” quipped Muyeed.

The three will shout their lungs out for Bangladesh but not when Virat Kohli is batting. “He is a class apart,” said Muyeed.