The Madurai Panthers all-rounder, who can bowl with both arms, is the first professional cricketer from Andaman in the TNPL and hopes to one day establish an academy in his hometown.The distance between the Andaman Islands and the cricket-obsessed city of Chennai is roughly 1300 kilometres. Yet in cricketing terms, the gulf between the two regions runs deeper than the Indian Ocean that separates them.For the four lakh people staying in the archipelago, becoming a cricketer is not a thought that crosses the mind simply because there is no system in place. But Atheeq ur Rahman, with his foray into the TNPL, may have changed that narrative.
The 28-year-old, playing for the Madurai Panthers, is the first and only professional cricketer to come out of the Islands. Atheeq was introduced to the sport in 1999 on the shores of the Bay of Bengal by his father, Althaf ur Rahman, a former Tamil Nadu first division player.
“It’s all my dad; he is the person who encouraged, supported, and helped me develop my career. Despite the limited opportunities here, he wanted me to pursue cricket. I remember playing on the beach with him. Those are semma (great) memories,” Atheeq recounts in a conversation with Sportstar.