In a sporting gesture, owners of the 10 teams which took part in the just-concluded G. Venkataswamy memorial Telangana T-20 League cricket championship organised by the Hyderabad Cricket Association, have presented a cheque of ₹10 lakh to Mahender Vaishnav, the blind cricketer from Telangana, who was a member of the Indian team which won the World Cup for the visually impaired, recently.
Former junior national cricket committee selector and now vice-president of Telangana Badminton Association, V. Chamundeswaranath said this was in response to the report published in The Hindu highlighting the plight of Vaishnav.
“Once we read about his financial distress, we decided to help in our own little way,” Chamundi said. The cheque was presented by Telangana Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao in the presence of Rio Olympics silver medallist and star shuttler P.V. Sindhu and senior TRS Leader K. Keshav Rao at the valedictory function of the TTL at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here.
“It is a brilliant gesture by Chamundi to take the initiative. In fact, this is not the first time he had come forward to help a needy athlete. Over the years, he has been helping them, including Aruna Reddy, who won a bronze in the World Cup gymnastics,” the special invitees mentioned at the event.
“I would humbly submit that Sachin Tendulkar and I had contributed ₹50 lakh each,and collected a total of ₹1.75 crore so far and distributed ₹15 lakh each to the Indian para Olympians who represented the country since 1972,” Chamundi said.
For the record, Vaishnav is the only player from Telangana to represent India in the World Cup for the visually impaired and also happens to be the only bowler to take a five-wicket haul. He has so far played 45 ODIs and 30 T20 matches.
