Indian expat in Dubai, 38, dies of heart attack while playing cricket; friend recalls horror on the pitch

Dubai: It was a Sunday morning like any other. Indian expat Safwan Shanu, 38, arrived at the open ground in the Al Garhoud area of Dubai just before dawn, the way he had done nearly every week for year: spirits high, bat in hand, and friends around him who were as much family as his own kin.

He had hit sixes that morning, laughed with the bowler, and told him he would hit the next one even farther. Then he walked to the non-striker's end, sat down briefly, gestured for water and collapsed. He never got back up, shocking his friends and community members.

Nabil Karikal, a close friend who was on the pitch when Safwan collapsed, told Gulf News on Tuesday that dozens of friends were shocked about what happened while they were still playing.

"We were all playing normally. He scored 46 runs and hit six sixes that morning. He was even joking with the bowler, telling him he would hit the next one even farther. After hitting a six, he took a single and went to the non-striker's end. He sat down briefly and then just fell to the ground," he recalled.

There was no warning. No complaint of chest pain, no sweating, no sign that anything was wrong, according to Nabil.

He said the group immediately rushed to him, performed CPR, and called for an ambulance. The ambulance reached in seven minutes and Safwan was taken to hospital but was pronounced dead.

"I just couldn't comprehend what was happening. He was perfectly fine just seconds before. I have not been able to stop thinking about it," said Nabil, his voice still heavy days later.

The cause of death was confirmed as a heart attack.

According to Nabil, the group of friends had been playing cricket at a parking lot in Al Garhoud for nearly nine years, gathering every Sunday morning from around 5.30am and wrapping up before 8am.

On some Sundays, as many as 30 players would show up, all from the town of Bhatkal in the south Indian state of Karnataka, where Safwan was born and where cricket is not merely a game but a way of life.

"For our people from Bhatkal, cricket is written into us. Without cricket, we cannot breathe. We play not just for fitness. We play because this is who we are. This weekend cricket session has been our biggest stress buster,” said Nabil.

Safwan had been a fixture at these games since he arrived in Dubai around 15 years ago. He had come as a young man in his early twenties, worked for several years, and later started his own food trading company. Yet no matter how busy life became, Sunday morning cricket was never missed.

The news shattered his family. Safwan's parents, who were in India when they heard what had happened, immediately wanted to travel to Dubai. They did not have visas. Community members scrambled to arrange the paperwork and book flights, and his parents arrived in Dubai the same night.

His elder brother Mohammed Fairoz Shanu, who lives in Dubai, described the loss as incomprehensible. "I still cannot accept it. It is very difficult to face,” he said in tears.

What made the grief even more unbearable was that this was not the first time the family had lost a son to a sudden heart attack at a cruelly young age.

Fairoz confirmed that their younger brother, Ghazwan Shanu, had died at just 16 after complaining he could not breathe one night.

"He also did not have any other health issues except fever and cold and when he said he could not breathe, initially we thought it was because his nose was blocked. But we lost him immediately," he recalled.

That loss came around 14 years ago. Safwan was now the second brother taken by heart attack, without warning, far too young.

"My mother has lost two of her children. I cannot explain what she is going through,” Fairoz said trying to hold back his tears.

Safwan is survived by his wife, three sons and a baby daughter who is just four months old. According to friends, he had been radiant since the birth of the couple's first girl after three boys. He had left home that Sunday morning as usual, and his children were not with him at the ground that day.

Nabil recalled that Safwan often brought his two older sons to watch him play. "If he did not score well, his kids would ask him, 'Papa, why didn't you score today?' They had his same passion for the game."

His funeral was held at Al Qusais Cemetery on Monday. The Bhatkal community in Dubai, along with hundreds of friends and well-wishers, came to bid him farewell.

Jailani Mohtisham, a senior community member from Bhatkal, who has lived in Dubai for over 22 years and knew Safwan well, said the community made the collective decision to bury him in the UAE, as has been their tradition for decades.

"This has been our home for a long time. Our people are usually buried here. All of us are shocked and saddened about Safwan's passing. We are standing by his family at this difficult time," he said.