Ram Babu Pal

Lucknow: A former Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy player committed suicide in Allahabad on Saturday.

Thirty-five-year-old Ram Babu Pal, who had represented Uttar Pradesh in Ranji Trophy matches in the early 1990s, was found hanging from the ceiling of his residence, police said. He is survived by wife Ranjana, a son and an infant daughter.

Depression and “teasing” by some office colleagues are believed to be the reasons behind his suicide.

He had left a note that said his confidence was at an all-time low. “I could not recover from this. My friends and colleagues kept teasing me frequently. Give my property to my wife,” he said in it.

Pal is the second UP cricketer to have committed suicide this year. Twenty-two-year-old Subhash Dixit, who captained India in the 2000 U-15 World Cup and who also led the Uttar Pradesh U-15 and U-19 sides, ended his life on June 11

Subhash had also struggled to make it and depression finally got the better him. He took his life by jumping from the sixth floor of a shopping complex in Kanpur.

Pal had dreamt of counting his runs on a cricket pitch but ended up counting currency notes behind the cash counter of a State Bank of India branch in Allahabad.

Ranjana complained that her husband used to often slip into long spells of depression and was teased by his colleagues for being in the bank through the sports quota.

“Any reference to cricket used to depress him a lot. He used to look at the trophies in the drawing room and often break into tears,” she said.

Allahabad City SP Uday Shankar said: “We had received complaints about teasing in his office. It was an unfortunate incident. We have launched an investigation to find the colleagues who used to tease him. We will see if a case on provoking him into committing suicide can be made against them.”

Pal played six first-class matches for Uttar Pradesh between 1990 to 1994, aggregating 178 runs. He also played alongside Sachin Tendulkar and Vinod Kambli in some domestic under-19 matches.