While the tragic death of 25-year-old Australian cricketer, Phillip Hughes, is still fresh in the minds of the game’s lovers, the death of a young Mumbai player at Oval Maidan shook the city’s cricketing community yesterday.
Ratnakar More (28) was at the ground for a cricket tournament organised by his employers, when he suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed on the spot. According to More’s friends, who were present at the ground, he had begun to complain of uneasiness and chest pain during the first innings of the match, and then collapsed at 11.05 am.
“I saw him walk towards the shadow of a nearby tree and collapse there. We thought he fell unconscious because of the heat or dehydration, and rushed towards him. But when he didn’t move, we panicked and called for an ambulance,” said Mohan Kamat, one of More’s friends. By 11.30 am, however, doctors at Bombay Hospital declared More dead.
The 28-year-old’s body was then transferred to the state-run GT Hospital for post-mortem. According to Vishvakant Dighe, from the GT post-mortem centre, the cause of death was a ‘severe heart attack’. More, an employee of Tata Energy at Carnac Bunder, is survived by his parents and his wife, who is currently five months pregnant. According to his cousin, Vishal Mane, More and his wife had got married just last year.