24-year-old dies of heart attack while playing cricket in Mumbai

Vaibhav Kesarkar, a 24-year-old cricketer died of heart attack while playing a tennis cricket tournament in Bhandup in Mumbai on 23 December.

Kesarkar had experienced pain in the chest while batting but he did not opt out of the match. When he came back on the ground to the field, his pain aggravated.

Unable to continue further, he walked off the field after speaking to the umpire. He was in the pavilion when he and his teammates realised that his health was deteriorating.

"The pain in his chest was continuing to increase at every stage," said Kesarkar's friend Rakesh Pawar. 

He was rushed to the nearby Bhavsar Multispeciality hospital. However, he did not respond to the medicines and died during treatment.

Kesarkar had been unemployed for a while and his family has been battling poverty. Hailing from Bhandup, the family had moved to Kalwa near Thane to make ends meet.

Pawar also added that with no job in hand, Kesarkar would have been under tremendous pressure due to the financial condition of his family.

However, Kesarkar had never mentioned the same to his friends. His friends remember him as a good cricketer who used to behave nicely with everyone and enjoyed his game.

Dr Satyen Bhavsar who supervised his treatment said that he was given all possible medical attention but despite all efforts, he could not be saved.

Dr Bhavsar further blamed the current lifestyle of youngsters as one of the prime reasons for such unprecedented incidents. This is the third death due to a cardiac arrest that has been reported in the recent few days.

He also cited rampant consumption of junk food, failing to eat food at the correct time, long party hours and constant usage of mobile phone as major reasons for deteriorating health.  

(With inputs from Vinay Tewari)