Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], February 2 (ANI): The Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) will be organising a voluntary blood donation camp on its Foundation Day on Wednesday.
The blood donation camp is being dedicated to the memory of former West Indies cricketer Sir Frank Worrell.
In 1962, Nari Contractor, the then captain of the Indian touring team to West Indies, was hit by a bouncer from Charlie Griffith. Contractor was operated upon by a surgeon who had to be specially flown in from Trinidad.
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 to Contractor and the life was saved.
“In remembrance of this great humanitarian act of Sir Frank Worrell, the programme was thought of as a part of Foundation Day’s programme of the CAB in 1981, when the concept of voluntary blood donation was in a nascent state in this state. The programme has been helping in spreading in the message of blood donation deep down in the community,” CAB said in an official statement.
“This year the blood donation camp id being organised on February 3 in usual collaboration with the Association of Voluntary Blood Donors West Bengal. Seven blood banks with a total collection capacity of 1200 units would collect blood from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm,” it added
The blood donors will be presented with a special CAB badge and certificate of honour signed by Indian women’s cricketer Jhulan Goswami.
According to CAB, for the last few years, concurrent camps are being organised on the same day in the district headquarters of West Bengal and sub-divisional towns. This year also, all the District Sports Associations, except Burdwan District. have been requested to hold the camp in their district headquarters, like previous years. (ANI)
