All-rounder Dipanjan Dey, who joined the club at the start of the 2022 season, has announced that he will be leaving to take up a permanant professorship in his home country later this week.
‘Dippy’, who was working at University of Southampton when he joined up having moved from his position at University of Stockholm and then University of Exeter, made a big impression on his Calmore Sports debut, taking a hat-trick for the second XI when removing Wheeler (caught), Johnson (lbw) and Nadathur (bowled) in successive deliveries on his way to figures of 4-24 against Portsmouth and Southsea II in May.
Arriving at the club as an international cricketer, having played 6 T20 internationals for Sweden in August 2021 against Denmark and Finland whilst he was working in Stockholm – the first full international to play for Calmore since West Indian Junior Murray in 1995 – he certainly showed what he was capable of, even though he didn’t get a bowl for the Swedish side. He had a best of 75* off 49 balls playing against the Finnish.
He would claim 14 wickets at 18.71 each as well as smashing 394 runs at 43.77 average and a strike-rate of 139.71 including 22 sixes and was a key member of Matt Taylor’s second XI who won Hampshire Division Three South in 2022.
Having served his qualification time – he was unable to play in the first XI as a non overseas player in his first season – he would make the move into Ben Johns’ side for 2023, playing in 12 Southern Premier League matches and scoring 149 runs and taking 4 wickets at just 4.30 runs per over but it was in the SPCL T20 competition that he thrived, crashing a superb 57 off 35 balls (six fours, two sixes) against OTs and Romsey while haunting poor Portsmouth and Southsea once again by claiming 3-12 in the first round game at Loperwood.
However, opportunities in his work environment will mean that he is moving to Bhubaneswar in the Odisha region on the east coast of India on December 8th and will be taking up an assistant professor role at the Indian Institute of Technology, where he will be responsible for teaching Masters students, supervising Ph.Ds and continue his research on understanding the role of the Indian ocean on Indian monsoons as part of his tracing water transport pathways work that has taken him to Sweden, England and now back ‘home’ – his destination being just 210 miles south-west of his birthplace in West Bengal.
He said following announcing the news, “It was my pleasure to play for Calmore. I never thought I would get a home club like Calmore away from home. Thank you for all the help and support throughout my two years. I will follow the scores from India.”
Many congratulations Professor Dippy on your new role and thank you for everything you did in the Calmore green – you will be welcomed back with open arms any time you return.
