Early Days:
As an alumnus of Jagadbandhu Institution, I enjoyed a massive reputation as a proficient medium pace all-rounder among my school-mates. It was not until I got picked for my school team that I had any formal training in cricket.I remember one day when I was in the eighth standard, Dattatreya Mukherjee (former Bengal pacer) had come to our school to handpick a few candidates for the school team. Unfazed by the buzz surrounding the trials for the school team, I was busy playing tennis-ball cricket with some of my friends in close vicinity of the nets where the trials were being conducted.
As I was rolling my arm over, I somehow caught the attention of Mr. Mukherjee and he came over to me and asked me if I had ever bowled with a leather ball before. I said no and soon found myself in the nets with a hard leather ball in my hand, puffed up and raring to play with the new toy I had been given. Impressed with my bowling skills, Mr. Mukherjee drafted me into the school side then and there and told me to turn up for the practice matches from the next day onward. Riding on the back of a satisfactory first season for the school side, I was made the school captain and a consistent show at the school-level for the next few seasons won brought several accolades; I was declared the best sportsman of my school for four years in succession.
My rise through the junior ranks was steady but confidence-inspiring. Having passed out from high school in 2004, I established myself as a pillar of my college (Heramba Chandra College) team in a very short space of time. Around that time (2003/04), Mahindra and Mahindra’s Scorpio brand had launched a ten-city talent hunt called the ‘Scorpio Speedster’, which aimed at spotting the fastest bowler in India among a host of young cricket aspirants. For the winner, there was a cash prize of Rs. 75,000 and a chance to attend the Australian Institute of Sport Cricket Academy, Adelaide on offer in the inaugural edition.
Like many other co-contestants my age looking to showcase their skills on such a big platform, I participated in the first two editions of the contest and ended up as one of the top ten contestants on both occasions. My cricketing graph which had been showing a gradual progress all along zoomed all of a sudden. The next three years turned out to be very fruitful. Successful stints at a number of C.A.B division clubs, dominance across run charts on the club circuit, a contract with Excelsiors in 2007, followed by a prolific season with them, helped me establish credentials as a young player and took me one step closer to playing first-class cricket for Bengal.
The post-accident phase was agonizing and difficult to endure for me and my family. A couple of days after the accident, it dawned upon me that my right leg had to be amputated. The accident plunged me into a state of severe depression and once I realized the fact that my chances of returning to mainstream cricket were wrecked forever, my depression compounded. Maybe if I had not been a sportsman, the impact of the loss wouldn’t have hit me as hard as it did. For the next six months, I underwent a spate of surgeries and after the amputation was successfully performed at the AMRI, Dhakuria, the doctors told that I would have to go on crutches all the rest of my life.
This came as a big blow to me as a 21-year-old who had fallen headlong from a position of peak performance in less than half a year’s time. The world around me started to collapse; I had just completed my graduation and was all set to play for Jadavpur University in the impending season. An Under-22 call-up into the state side also seemed like a real possibility, courtesy a robust season with Excelsiors which saw me hit over sixty to seventy sixes for them in just nine matches. As soon as I got back home after discharge from the hospital, I carried out an extensive search on the internet to check if there was any remedy available online that could help me revive my career as an athlete.
After shuffling through various options online, I finally came across a UK based company called Endolite which specializes in manufacturing artificial limbs. The concept of artificial limbs was still fairly new in India at that time and so there was limited knowledge about the same among the public here in Kolkata. I wasted no time in contacting them through a video conversation and they enquired me about my lifestyle so that they could recommend a prosthetic limb to fit my requirements.
By 2010, my cricketing engagements had multiplied several-fold as I made my presence felt in various local and corporate tournaments. However, I had no inkling hitherto that physically-challenged cricket is recognised as a competitive sport in India. Later that same year, I came to know about the existence of the All India Cricket Association of the Physically Challenged (founded by former Indian captain Ajit Wadekar in 1988), and when I appeared for its trials, I met with howls of wry laughter. People looked at me cynically when I first went there. Maybe they thought to themselves, ‘How can a fellow without a limb even imagine of playing cricket?’
I decided not to pay any heed to any of their mocking insinuations and instead requested the administrators to give me a chance to prove my abilities in the trials. The trial went off well for me and I got selected immediately. After playing with them for close to two years, one of the things that held me back from prolonging my stint with them was that they were playing with a soft ball. All this while, even after my accident, I hadn’t shied away from playing with a hard leather ball and hence the idea of playing with a soft ball failed to capture my imagination. My pursuit of playing against able-bodied athletes on a more regular basis led me to form a corporate team ‘Joarder Enterprise’ in 2013 along with a few friends, each of whom have played first-division club cricket at some stage in their careers.
Then in 2014, I made my second foray into physically-challenged cricket, this time with the other association named Disable Sporting Society(now Divyang Cricket Control Board of India) complying with proper ICC rules and regulations. “Winning my first international cap was a dream come true. I made an immediate impact on the international scene with two half-centuries that saw visitors India whitewash hosts Bangladesh in my maiden series for India.
Keeping my fervent passion for cricket intact,I ventured into running in 2015. My strong performances across a series of top-flight marathons in the country earned me an opportunity to be a part of a training camp organised by German prostheses supplier Ottobock and 2012 Paralympic gold-medallist Heinrich Popow in Mumbai. After the conclusion of a three-day training session with Popow, eleven athletes chosen by Ottobock,based on their performances in marathons across the country were asked to compete in a 50m sprint.
To the astonishment of Popow and the others witnessing the proceedings, I completed the challenge in a little over 6.50 seconds - almost 7 seconds adrift of the Paralympic qualification time! Heinrich seemed very impressed with my display and wanted to know whether I would be keen on doing a three-month training program with him in a bid to compete in the 2016 Rio Paralympics. He even offered to give me a prosthetic blade designed specially for paralympians (which he was going to use for himself in Rio) at a discounted price, but still, the cost of that limb was beyond my financial means.
In order to spread awareness about the prevailing predicament of para-athletes in India, I became a regular feature at Kolkata’s top marathon meets like the IDBI Federal Life Insurance’s Kolkata Marathon and the TATA Steel Kolkata 25K over the last few years It becomes imperative here to mention the success of the Maitree Cup which raked in media attention like no other event for physically-challenged cricketers of the past. During the course of the Maitree Cup, I was often confronted with a common question as to why don’t physically-challenged cricketers get the same recognition as their able-bodied peers, either from their apex body or the media in general.
I think the kind of competition that was put up for show at the tournament really prompted the media to give due coverage to physically-challenged cricket. For this, I am greatly indebted to the media fraternity of Bengal in particular and also to those media representatives who had come to cover the tournament from outside. The Government of West Bengal too showed support to the team through Minister of State for Sports and Youth Development and former Bengal captain Laxmi Ratan Shukla, who was the chief guest at the Maitree Cup.
In April 2017, the Indian team led by Ravindar Kamboj, ended up sharing the trophy with Bangladesh in a tri-series involving the Bangladeshi, Indian and Sri Lankan Physically Challenged teams on Bangladeshi soil. Suvro averaged 86 with the bat in that series. My decent captaincy record for the Bengal Physically Challenged cricket team and loads of runs across all tournaments over the last couple of seasons, contributed to my elevation to national captaincy at the start of the Maitree Cup. As a leader, my primary aim was to inculcate a team culture that would focus on playing firebrand cricket.
Looking back at some prestigious International and National tournaments:
CCL Cup, Ranchi - Indian physically challenged team vs. Nepal physically challenged team
*Scored the first-ever Century in Physically Challenged Cricket.
Tata Steelium Cup (Tri-nation series), Kolkata –
Indian physically challenged team, Bangladesh physically challenged team and Nepal physically challenged team.
India was runners-up in this tournament.
Allan Border Trophy, Singapore –
Indian physically challenged team led by Suvro played against Singapore Cricket Club (an able-body team led by Dene Border)
Australian legends like Brad Hogg and Michael Kasprowicz were part of the opponent team. India won the series 2-1.
India tour of Srilanka 2018 –
India physically challenged team won the series 2-1.
Celebration Cup –
Exhibition match between Bengal physically challenged team and Tollywood XI played on 3rd December 2018 to observe World Disabled Day.
Bengal won the match by 8 wickets.
First Physically Challenged Cricketer to be given permission to play with normal players by the Cricket Association of Bengal.
Made a comeback for old Club Excelsiors after 11 years in April 2019.
CAB Joint Secretary Avishek Dalmiya,President Sourav Ganguly and technical committee amended ICC’s law and allowed a runner while batting.
Glimpses of Dadagiri -
Mentoring and motivating budding talents.
Connected with Kolkata Police, BSF and Ottobock where I guide amputees with the technicalities of using the artificial limb.
Received the prestigious ZEE Annanya Samman 2019.
Received the prestigious Spirit of Sports Award from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar alongside other prominent Sports personalities of Bengal.
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