Lightning Kills Kolkata-based Aspiring Cricketer

Following a heart-wrenching episode, a young cricketer Debabrata Pal was killed by a bolt of lightning on Sunday (June 10) in Kolkata. The 21-year-old lost his life in an unfortunate accident when he was warming up before the net session.

Pal was a resident of Serampore of Kolkata’s Hooghly District. In fact, the young player had joined the Vivekananda Park barely a month ago.

However, Pal’s parents had given the permission to join competitive cricket after he had graduated. The cricketer had recently given his finals exams of B.com Hons before trying his luck in the gentleman’s game.

This is an unfortunate event:

Pal was a bowler who also contributed with the bat. Meanwhile, he was warming up with his teammates when it started to drizzle around 1:30 PM.

On the other side, the other players decided to come under the roof to take cover. However, Pal and three other players continued with their warm-ups.

Rahul Mondala, who was a couple of yards away from Pal described the eventual incident. Rahul said that Pal collapsed in front of him when he was struck by the Lightning.

“I remember seeing Debabrata collapse. He first went down on his knees and then slumped backwards in front of our eyes,” Rahul told The Telegraph.

Rahul added Pal stopped breathing. He went on to add that he also tried to give him oxygen by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (artificial ventilation).

“I felt his pulse; it was very feeble. But he was not breathing. I pumped his chest and tried to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But he didn’t respond,” added Rahul.

Pal was taken to a nearby hospital Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan but he was declared dead by the doctors.

“He was always good at cricket and his dream was to become a cricketer,” said Bajradeepan Purakayasthya, who was a good friend of Pal from childhood days.

Bajradeepan used to travel from Serampore to Kolkata with Debabrata Pal during school and college days respectively.

“But he knew his parents would not support his joining a cricket academy until he had graduated. So, he joined the coaching camp after sitting his BCom finals,” Pal’s friend went on to add.