IPL 2021: After returning from IPL, RR’s Chetan Sakariya’s spends days at hospital for COVID-19 positive father – The suspension of IPL 2021 due to rising cases of COVID-19 inside IPL’s bio-bubble has come as a relief for Rajasthan Royals’ Chetan Sakariya. The young pacer, who returned home as soon as the tournament was suspended, had to rush to a nearby hospital in Vartej in Gujarat with his father Kanjibhai hospitalized due to the COVID-19 infection.
Chetan Sakariya was informed about his father’s condition last week and with the part-salary, he received for IPL 2021, he transferred it home. Since returning home, he now spends days waiting at a hospital bench from 9 AM to 2 PM. He is worried for his father as he is a diabetic patient for whom COVID-19 could throw up a long list of complications.
“I was lucky because I had received my part payment from Rajasthan Royals a few days ago. I straight away transferred money back home, and that is helping my family the most in my toughest time,” Chetan Sakariya told The Indian Express.
For players like Chetan Sakariya, money from IPL is the major source of income as he is yet to be a regular for Saurashtra in domestic cricket. The 23-year-old was picked up for a whopping Rs 1.20 crore from the IPL 2021 auctions in February.
“People are saying stop IPL. I want to tell them something, I am the only bread earner in my family. Cricket is the only source of my earnings. I can give better treatment to my father because of the money I earned from IPL. Had this tournament not happened for a month, it would have been tougher for me. I come from a poor family, my father all his life drove tempo and because of IPL my whole life was about to change,” Chetan Sakariya said.
The last few months have been tough for Chetan Sakariya. When he was playing in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, he lost his brother, who committed suicide. His parents did not inform him immediately as they wanted him to focus on cricket. Few months after that, Sakariya became a crorepati but the change in fortunes could not take the emptiness away. Rajasthan Royals presented him with a jersey with his brother’s initials imprinted on it and the message, “Miss you bro.”
IPL 2021: Chetan Sakariya made impressive IPL debut for Rajasthan Royals
IPL 2021 was life-changing moment for young Chetan Sakariya. Not only there was a windfall of money for him but he could manage to impress many including coach Kumar Sangakkara. In 7 matches, he bagged 7 wickets. He was impressive with his skill, bagging wickets of international players such as KL Rahul, MS Dhoni and Mayank Agarwal.
“Sanju bhai (Sanju Samson) came and told me that the management is seeing a high potential in me, so be ready, you will be playing. I couldn’t sleep that night, thoughts kept popping on how I would bowl, how I will get my wicket, what kind of delivery should I bowl,” Sakariya said.
Chetan Sakariya hopes the remained of the IPL 2021 gets underway soon as he is the sole bread-earner of the family and wants to build a house. “I am the only member in my community who has earned so much. My mother doesn’t know how many zeros are there in crores. Our first priority is to see my father back and then build that home. For that, IPL should happen,” he said.
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