Former Railways batsman and well known first-class cricketer Raja Ali passed away under tragic circumstances. He suffered a massive cardiac arrest at his hometown Bhopal on Sunday night.
The 36-year-old left-hand batsman didn’t get any help from the onlookers who saw him writhing in pain and lying on the pavement of the famous VIP Road in Bhopal.
It was cops who discovered that a man was lying unconscious and rushed him to the hospital, but the former cricketer was declared brought dead.
Raja was with former India all-rounder J P Yadav and both had gone to attend a death anniversary function of an official of their former club.
Raja was riding a bike and Yadav was his pillion. Raja dropped Yadav at his residence at about 11 pm and proceeded towards his house.
He felt chest pain and he stopped his bike and lay on the pavement of the busy VIP Road, where lot of people come for their evening walks after 10:30 pm.
However none came up to him for help, even though they saw a man lying there in pain. Why?
It was a beat constable on round, who found Raja in an unconscious state. He took him to the hospital but was declared brought dead.
Raja could have been saved if he was rushed to the hospital at the right time. Why none came to his rescue?
The cell phone that Raja carried was used to find out his whereabouts. His phone book contacts were informed that he was no more.
The left-hand batsman had scored 4,337 runs in 87 first-class matches with nine centuries and 22 half centuries. He was an important part of two Ranji Trophy and one Irani Trophy winning Railways squad.
Raja played his last first-class game in 2008 and since then was active as coach-cum-player for West Central Railways.
Raja is survived by his wife and a three-year-old child.
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syed Ali Mujtaba is journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com –
The input of this story is from a PTI report
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