Apart from its academic excellence, Jadavpur University (JU) is renowned for producing some of Kolkata and Bengal’s finest athletes. On July 15, at a special event organised at Kolkata Port Trust Club, JU alumni recognised many such sportspersons who have represented the institution in the past, with several of them going on to play sports professionally.
Members of JU Blues, who had initially congregated years ago to keep in touch beyond their university days, reunited to felicitate distinguished athletes from their alma mater. Rupnath Roy Chowdhury, the chairperson of the Membership Committee of the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), and Udayan Mookerjee, the CEO of a multinational group, were among the guests present.
Former JU cricketer Aveek Bhattacharya felicitated by Titas Sadhu (left) and Ritwik Roy Chowdhury
The athletes whose service to JU was celebrated on the day included both cricketers or footballers. Many among them, such as Prabal Dasgupta, Kunal Bose, Diptesh Pakrashi, Judhajit Mukherjee and Amitav Banerjee, were also bright scholars back in the day who received titles such as the best sportsman at JU, the best all-round graduate, among others. While some have ventured out of sports after graduation to enter business or journalism, many are still associated with sports, be it mountaineering, horse riding or coaching and mentoring youngsters.
The awardees for cricket were — Kunal Bose, Debanik Sengupta, Diptesh Pakrashi, Judhajit Mukherjee, Amitav Banerjee, Debu Banik, Koushik Mukherjee, Nilambar Saha and Abhra Chatterjee. While for football, the list comprised — Prabal Dasgupta, Dulal Dey, Debashish Ganguly, Anushtup Sarkar and Chittaranjan Das. Also gracing the event were Raja Chakraborty and Tapan Ghosh, the heads of the Alumni Association of JU.
The organisers intend to expand the upcoming editions of the event to include other sports, too
The event ended with the felicitation of young cricketers Titas Sadhu, winner of the ICC U-19 World Cup earlier this year, and Ritwik Roy Chowdhury, a mainstay for the Bengal team across formats. The organisers declared their intention to expand the event in the coming years to include achievers from other sports who have also left their mark at JU.