He is Ibrahim Ali Shaikh. He is a cricketer as well as an athlete from Haldia in East Midnapore. Hailing from a sports family where his father Shaikh Mujaffar was a renowned kabaddi player, the 36-year-old Ibrahim has been the captain of last year’s CAB-organized T-20 tournament champion team, Young Bengal for the last three seasons. 

Before Young Bengal, Ibrahim was also the captain of Southern Samity. The all-rounder who participated in the under-16 school nationals for Bengal has also been the best cricketer in the Midnapore district league. 

Athletics entered Ibrahim’s life as an effort to maintain physical fitness during the off-season two years ago when Ibrahim inspired by Sayantani Saha, started practicing running and throwing events. 

Ibrahim along with his wife Sunita Prasad and Sayantani Saha-all three from Haldia returned from Dubai on Wednesday with medals. Ibrahim revealed speaking over the phone while returning to Haldia, “Sayantani Saha is our inspiration. She is a yoga and fitness trainer. She has been participating in International Masters athletics for a long time. Her encouragement has guided us to take up athletics seriously." 

Ibrahim has acquired three gold medals in the Triple Jump, Shot Put, and Discuss-Throw and bagged silver in the 4X100 meter relay race. His wife Sunita Prasad has also earned three gold medals (3km Walk, Javelin, and Shot Put) and a silver in the Discuss-Throw. 

Sayantani Saha however won four gold medals (100m, 400m, 4X100 m relay, 1500m) and the silver medal in 200 meters. All of them took part in the 35-year age group. 

Ibrahim is also a cancer survivor. He was plagued by Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2020 and had to stay at Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital for three months for the treatment. Even he had to spend the entire 2021 on his during his post-operation phase. 

Ibrahim divulged, "The disease was detected in the first stage. I always motivated myself and prepared mentally to return to the field." 

The 36-year-old cricketer seems to be in a transition of mindset from cricket to masters' athletics gradually as he stated, "I am growing older. So, naturally, my cricket can stop after a couple of years, but I can concentrate on masters' athletics." 

However, Ibrahim has another desire. That is to produce quality cricketers from his district. He has been nurturing young cricketers for the last two decades. He runs a cricket club 'Blue Star' in Haldia where more than 120 budding cricketers are being offered training free of cost. 

Ibrahim continued, “Two from our club Om Prakash Das and Sampat Jana have already represented Bengal in the under-16 age group. My desire is to produce more cricketers from our club. I have observed that the cricketers from districts are generally neglected. I want to break the trend.”