CABThe Cricket Association of Bengal

March 1962. The Indian team was touring the West Indies. After the first two Tests, the Indians were playing a colony game at Barbados. The Indian captain Nari Contractor was hit on the skull when he got behind the line to play a lifting delivery from the Caribbean speedster Charlie Griffith. Contractor had to be operated upon by a surgeon who had to be specially flown in from New York. He required a considerable quantity of blood for survival. The West Indies captain Sir Frank Worrell took the initiative and the players of the two teams as well as others donated blood for Contractor. Though the Indian captain never played Test cricket again, he survived.

It was so long ago. But even today, the Indians have not forgotten Sir Frank’s act of benevolence. He represented every thing that the glorious game of cricket stood for. Yet, it was irony of fate that this great gentleman cricketer met an untimely end in March 1967, as a result of leukemia.

The Foundation Day of the CAB is celebrated on 3 February every year. Since 1981, the CAB had decided to salute the great soul and its Foundation Day is observed as “Sir Frank Worrell Day”. A Blood Donation Camp is organized in the CAB premises as well as in the Districts. Nearly 2,000 persons donate the invaluable drops of life every year. Fruits and flowers are also distributed to the ailing patients of Dr. B.C. Roy Memorial Hospital for Child in Kolkata.

Every year, the blood donors are awarded certificates duly signed by eminent cricketers of repute. The yearly statistics of blood donors in the Blood Donation Camp organized by the Association since 1981 are: