Suman Chattopadhyay: Capturing cricket in all its glory

Suman Chattopadhyay

Hailing from Kolkata, Chattopadhyay, a huge cricket fan since childhood, has been capturing cricket in his lens for the past 41 years.

Destiny played a big role in kick-starting his career as a lensman. In 1977, Chattopadhyay's father, who was a photographer for Amrit Bazar Group, took him along for a match at the Eden Gardens. His father had left the camera with his son when Gavaskar got out. Chattopadhyay clicked that photograph, which was published in the newspapers the next day. The rest is his story!

Chattopadhyay covered the historic 1987 World Cup that was held in India for the first time as well as the subsequent edition in 1992, which was jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The photographer credits the latter for taking his career to a different level.

Sharing memories of the first World Cup played in colored clothing, he recalled, "I even met Sir Don Bradman at his house. I presented him a Punjabi kurta. I clicked Imran Khan reading namaz before the semi-finals. In Auckland, I clicked Sachin Tendulkar sleeping in the dressing room as Richard Hadlee looked on. I clicked 20-25 rare and exclusive photographs."

Chattopadhyay's dream was rather simple, that the photos he clicked get published, and people recognize him. Today, most of the players know him by his name!

(Suman Chattopadhyay was covered as part of the Dream Big Stories powered by Dream11 on Sportskeeda)