Also read in

Assam Cricket Association announces ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh for Silchar former Ranji cricketer Prakash Bhagat

Silchar cricketer Prakash Bhagat throughout his career has brought many accolades for the city of Silchar. Assam state player and getting to represent in the Ranji Trophy were perhaps the hallmarks of his career. But over the years, poverty and financial instability have pushed him into the lookout for alternative modes of income. He started selling paranthas to make living but then Covid lockdown hit and everything went up in the flames. His business got destroyed and after Barak Bulletin covered his plight, the story became so viral that several national-level media houses too wrote stories on his crisis during Covid.

The Assam Cricket Association (ACA) has announced today an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh for former Ranji cricketer Prakash Bhagat of Silchar and Rs 50 thousand for Rujanmani Bora of Lakhimpur to support in their hard times in Covid. In this context, Debabrata Saikia, General Secretary of the ACA, said, “Through various media reports I came to know about the vulnerable financial condition of Silchar former Ranji cricketer Prakash Bhagat which is nothing short of a tragedy. In such testing times of Covid, every one of us is financially hit more or less, and with Prakash’s business getting halted due to Covid lockdown, it has created financial instability in his survival. Keeping in view of that, in a meeting with our President Ramen Dutta and also the apex council, we on behalf of the ACA have decided to offer a one-time financial aid of Rs 1 lakh to Prakash Bhagat and Rs 50 thousand to Lakhimpur junior cricketer Rujanmani Bora to assist them in their struggle against this crisis during the pandemic. We hope to find them in better circumstances in the coming days and pray for their well-being.”

Many people in social media have demanded government jobs for Prakash Bhagat when his story first came out. Their primary question is that, how come a state Ranji cricketer like Prakash Bhagat, who has won laurels and represented the state of Assam in many tournaments in the past, find himself in such an insufferable condition and that too in a cricket crazy country like India? We might take pride in having the richest board in World Cricket, but when it comes to the grassroots players, who actually form the trunk of any sports infrastructure of a state, they’re always rendered helpless and alone.

Comments are closed.