Come September 19 and a 16-year- old from Downtown, Uniworld City, will be playing at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The Indian Junior Players League is taking off and Nilabhro Chakraborty has been selected to represent Kolkata Strikers, one of the 16 teams representing Indian cities.
Touted as the first day-and-night tournament for junior cricketers to be telecast live, the league is for under-18 boys. The mentors for the tournament are Gautam Gambhir, Jonty Rhodes, Kieron Pollard, Rishi Dhawan and Paras Dogra.
Since November 2016, selection camps were held across 17 Indian cities where thousands of young cricketers showcased their cricket skills in front of professional coaches. Nilabhro was picked at the trials held at BA-CA Park under the supervision of Subhomoy Das, the head coach of Kolkata Strikers who also captains the Mohun Bagan cricket team.
It was Nilabhro’s father Nilendu who heard an advertisement on FM radio for the Dubai league and sent his son for the trials.
Nilabhro, who plays in the Bengal under-16 team, had already bowled to international stars at the nets. “I was one of the three bowlers from the under-16 team sent to the nets of both the ICC World T20 and the IPL. At the Eden and the Jadavpur second campus ground, I bowled to Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, Sikhar Dhawan, Kieron Pollard etc.” He also took part in the practice matches played by KKR, Kings XI Punjab and Gujarat Lions.
The boy took to cricket when he was in Class VI. Nilendu, a doctor with the Indian Railways, was posted in Malda then. “Once I joined a local coaching camp, the coach sent me to the under-14 selections for Malda district. I got a double hattrick in my first match,” says Nilabhro, who bats at one down and bowls fast. At 13, he was promoted to play for both the under-15 and under-16 district teams.
There he was spotted by Anup Pal, an observer from the CAB’s Vision 2020 programme, and asked to join the Dalhousie Athletic Club in Calcutta. Soon he was captaining the side in Ambar Roy Trophy.
Twelve wickets and 350-odd runs in three matches earned him a call-up to the Bengal under-15 selections which he cleared after a month and a half of trials.
An all-rounder on and off the field, Nilabhro has topped Narayana School in Class X Boards, earning a perfect 10 as his Cumulative Grade Point Average.
His father wants him to get an engineering degree and then focus on cricket. “Both the IITs and Jadavpur University have good cricket infrastructure,” he reasons. But for now, it is destination Dubai.
