Sourav Ganguly , Ranbir Kapoor invited for Lionel Messi-starrer Argentina`s friendly against Venezuela

His love for football is no secret and keeping that in mind organisers of the Lionel Messi-starrer Argentina`s international friendly against Venezuela have made it a point to extend an invitation to city`s favourite cricketer, Sourav Ganguly.

Bollywood actors Ranbir Kapoor, Rahul Bose, Chunkey Pandey, director Anurag Basu are also expected to watch the match.

"Sourav is a busy person and we are not sure whether he would be here on September 2. But of course, we will be inviting him," said Dharamdutt Pandey, chief executive officer of CMG.

A host of top politicians from various states have also expressed their willingness to watch the match.

"Chief ministers from Mizoram, Meghalaya and Jharkhand have expressed their willingness to come here. Apart from that many top corporate honchos have booked tickets, though we don`t know the exact names," Pandey said.

Besides, the state sports ministry have bought about 200 tickets that will be distributed to ex-players, Olympians and Arjuna awardees from Bengal.

"We don`t want our stars of yesteryears to be deprived. We have bought about 200 tickets for the sports council and we will take the ex-players for the match," sports minister Madan Mitra said.

Altogether 88,000 tickets from a seating capacity of 120,000 in the stadium are up for sale.


Meanwhile, the organisers also claimed this match would be recorded for the first time in India in high-definition (HD) format.

"Greymind Communication who has the TV rights will be installing 15 HD cameras of equal specifications in the stadium. For the first time we will have an HD broadcast from India. We have sold TV rights to 152 countries. It will be an event to remember," Bhaswar Goswami, executive director of CMG, said.