By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Srinagar: Valley-based engineer and freelance photographer Saqib Majeed who works with various national and international agencies has won the Wisden– Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Cricket Photograph of the Year competition- 2016 for a colorful image of a boys’ cricket game in the Mughal gardens of Srinagar.
The announcement was made by Lords on its website on April 3. The award carries cash reward of 2,000 Euros.
Saqib runs an engineering firm in Srinagar and is jubilant to receive the award.
“Saqib Majeed, a photojournalist of eight years, came across the scene on a visit to Nishat Bagh – one of the most famous Mughal gardens. Shooting from a vantage point of 35 feet up, Majeed was able to capture the entire game amongst the autumnal colours of the surrounding chinar trees,” reads the text on the website of Lords.
Saqib is the first from Kashmir and second in Asia to win this prestigious award.
“It was a normal autumn day when I visited Nishat garden where I saw youths playing cricket. I was amazed to see the game going on in such picturesque landscape. I rolled my camera and started to take pictures but I wanted it to be different from the ones which were already clicked by other photographers. So, I took position at an elevated spot and the result is in in fornt of everyone,” Saqib told TwoCircles.net.
“I mailed pictures to various London-based newspapers. The Guardian was first to publish this image in its print edition and then Times of London also published it,” he added.
Earlier, the picture also won Bar Croft picture of the year -2016.
In its seventh year of the competition, Wisden– Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Cricket Photograph of the Year competition saw more than 450 entries from around the world, with photographers of all levels of experience capturing a huge variety of cricketing moments.
The shortlist, runners-up and eventual winner were chosen by a panel chaired by former Chief Sports Photographer of The Sunday Times, Chris Smith and world-renowned cricket photographer Patrick Eagar. The former art director of The Cricketer magazine, Nigel Davies, was also on the panel, along with music photographer Kevin Cummins.
“Saqib’s picture was absolutely breath-taking, and a very worthy winner. A fellow judge rightly observed that the image looked more like one of the paintings in the Pavilion than a digital photograph – which is testament to the quality of the winning image,” said former Chief Sports Photographer of The Sunday Times Chris Smith.