KOLKATA, India (AP) – Indian cricket batsman Ankit Keshri died early Monday, three days after suffering a head injury in a freak accident on the field during a one-day match in the eastern city of Kolkata.
The 20-year-old Keshri was hospitalised Friday after colliding with a teammate while trying to catch a ball during the match between the local East Bengal and Bhowanipore teams.
“He was not breathing, so I gave him CPR, only then he started breathing,” East Bengal teammate Shibsagar Singh said. The players rushed Keshri to the intensive care unit at Kolkata’s AMRI Hospital, but he was later moved to the general admission unit before his family transferred him Sunday to Nightingale Hospital for more specialised treatment.
His father, Raj Keshri, said his son had been talking on Sunday, but still had a fever and nausea. “I don’t know why he was transferred to a general bed from ICU,” he said.
Dr Arpan Chowdhury said Keshri suffered a heart attack early Monday and died a few hours later.
Keshri was considered an up-and-coming talent on the Indian cricket scene. The right-hander was captain of the Bengal Under-19 team, and was short-listed for India’s Under-19 team for the 2014 Colts World Cup.
Retired cricket star Sachin Tendulkar expressed sorrow over the death of Keshri, “a promising career aborted by an unfortunate incident on field”, he said in a Twitter message.
The highest elected official in West Bengal state, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, also wrote on Twitter that she was “saddened, shocked with the news of young cricketer Ankit’s death … My condolences and prayers”.
