Various sports organisations and sportspersons from West Bengal have contributed generously for the fight against COVID-19 outbreak.
While the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has made a donation of ₹ 25 lakh, Mohun Bagan decided to give ₹ 20 lakh to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund.
The West Bengal Weightlifting Association pledged ₹ 1,01,001. The West Bengal Athletics Association, West Bengal Badminton Association, West Bengal Volleyball Association and Bengal Tennis Association have contributed ₹ 1 lakh each.
Cricket fraternity steps up
The cricket fraternity of the state has come forward in a big way following an appeal from CAB. Several leading cricketers, including Laxmi Ratan Shukla (three months MLA salary and BCCI pension), Richa Ghosh (1 lakh), Deepti Sharma (50,000), Mithu Mukherjee (25,000) and Shib Shankar Paul (25,000), have supported this cause.
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Shukla, a minister in the state, also joined hands with Eden Gardens’ curator Sujan Mukherjee to arrange rice and pulses for groundsmen. Mukherjee also requested the CAB to donate his one month’s salary to the fund.
CAB office-bearers, including CAB president Avishek Dalmiya who gave ₹ 5 lakh, members and employees also contributed wholeheartedly. A top East Bengal official has pledged that the club would donate at least Rs 30 lakh.
Big contribution
CAB Finance Committee member Sanjay Gupta pledged ₹ 1 crore through his company Captain Steel India Ltd. Many units affiliated to the CAB also made donations. Aryan Club (2 lakh), representative of Mohammedan Sporting Club Dipak Singh (2 lakh), Balak Sangha (1 lakh), Mohun Lal Club (1 lakh), Tollygunge Agragami (1 lakh), Cricket Club of Dhakuria (50,000), Vijay Sports Club (50,000) and Cricket Club of Bhowanipore (50,000) were among the leading donors.
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Match observers, scorers, coaches, curators and other officials associated with the game also chipped in. Significantly, match observers pooled in ₹ 1.5 lakh, while the scorers contributed a day’s pay to make up an amount of ₹ 77,420.
Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly, who hails from the city, along with Lal Baba Rice came forward to provide rice worth ₹ 50 lakh to the poor people.
Three ATK footballers, Pritam Kotal, Prabir Das and Pranoy Halder, also made contributions.
With donations continuing, the sports fraternity of the state is expected to lend solid support to the state government in the fight against coronavirus.
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