Subhendu Chaki

I was born and raised in Calcutta. I studied at St Thomas’ Church School where I took part in almost every sport, be it cricket, football or athletics. But eventually it was cricket, especially batting, that had me hooked. I started playing seriously when I was 12 years old and soon became the captain of the school team.

One of my first memorable achievements was making it to the Bengal Under-16 team. It felt great to be playing for the state. And it went beyond a personal achievement because I could contribute the match fee to the family income since we weren’t very well off. This also motivated me to make a career in cricket.

However, the most significant professional turning point for me was playing for Bengal against Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy finals in 2007. I scored 200 runs with Saurav Ganguly and we were the runners-up in the tournament. I also won the Best Batsman of the Year award from the Board of Control for Cricket in India and made it to the Indian team for the Bangladesh one-day series in that year. Unfortunately, I injured my shoulder during the first practice session and couldn’t play. Sachin Tendulkar was very supportive during this time and directed me to a specialist in the UK for surgery. I was shattered but my brother, Raj Kumar, and coach, Manabendra Ghosh, kept me going.

My next turning point was making a comeback in 2008 — with the Indian Premier League. For the first two years I played for the Delhi Daredevils and for the last two years I’ve been with the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). This season I became the third highest run-scorer for KKR and hit the maximum number of sixes. I’ve captained Bengal Under-19 and Under-22 teams and this year I am the skipper for the Bengal Ranji team. This year, after 22 years, we won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy too.

Now my goal is to make it to the Indian team and do my country proud. (As told to Lubna Salim)