XtraTime Web Desk: Due to heavy debt in market, former India opener VB Chandrasekhar committed suicide by hanging himself at his residence in Chennai on Thursday night. As per the family sources the funeral will take place on Saturday.
Proprietor of the T20 team, VB Kanchi Veerans of the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), modeled on the Indian Premier League, he had borrowed nearly Rs 4 crore from a private bank and invested around Rs 3 crore on the team, police said after initial investigations.
“The autopsy report had confirmed it as death by hanging and the body has been handed over to the family,” A Jayalakshmi, Deputy Commissioner of Police Mylapore, said. Earlier, it was said that he had died of a massive cardiac arrest.After retirement from professional cricket, he started a cricket coaching academy with a sprawling ground in Kelambakkam on the city outskirts, where first class matches are being held regularly for over 20 years. He was also with the CSK and is said to have been instrumental in getting MS Dhoni into the team.
He had incurred heavy losses in running the cricket team, Kanchi Veerans in the absence of any sponsor since its inception four years ago. Further, the team reached the play-off stage only this year but was eliminated after losing a crucial match. And recently, the bank from which he had borrowed money by pledging his house as surety, had sent a recovery notice. Ever since, he was under great mental stress,” said Jayalakshmi.
In a complaint to the police, Chandrasekhar’s wife, Sowmya, had maintained that he was depressed over the financial losses and the debt burden, the Deputy Commissioner added.
Though drafted on the panel of commentators for the TNPL match on Thursday, he had informed about his ‘inability’ to come citing indisposition. And that was his last conversation on mobile, the police officer said.
After having tea with the family members in the evening, he went to his room upstairs but didn’t turn up for a long time. When the family members knocked at his door, it was locked inside and there was no response. On opening the window, the family members were shocked to see him hanging on the ceiling fan with his own dhoti.
“The family members broke opened the door, attempted at resuscitation and rushed him in an ambulance to a private hospital nearby, where he was declared dead on arrival. Later, the family informed the police,” the police officer explained adding that Chandrasekhar had not left any suicide note. The body was then shifted to Royapettah Government Hospital for post-mortem.