Ahmedabad: The COVID-19 outbreak across the whole country, forced millions of people to quit their job. Even those who are in the professional field are in a condition to move on to other professions or jobs. The situation of athletes is no different.
A member of the Indian blind cricket team, Naresh Tumda who helped India to lift the Blind World Cup in 2018. Tumda was the star of India’s 308-run chase against Pakistan in the final at Sharjah. However, he is forced to sell vegetables at the Jamalpur market in Ahmedabad due to the financial crisis.
The 29-year-old cricketer has a five-member family. After playing in the Blind World Cup, he didn’t get much more than the match fees and even no financial support was provided to him. He worked as a daily labourer under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for some time and since that work is off now, Tumda is selling vegetables to make ends meet.
“If the Indian cricket team wins the World Cup, how much money and respect does the country and the state government would have showed them. But there is no excitement for blind cricketers like us! I don’t even get financial grants. In fact, we are never treated equally,” he said.
