Poonam, Mithali join the bandwagon; make donations towards Coronavirus aid

Joining a host of cricketing stars, India internationals Mithali Raj and Poonam Yadav have become the latest to extend their support to the state and central governments in their efforts combat the rapidly-spreading Coronavirus. Both players have made donations to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) and Telangane and Uttar Pradesh’s Chief Minister Distress Relief Fund respectively.

While Mithali contributed five lakh rupees each to the central and state government funds, Poonam made a donation of one lakh rupees to each fund.  

https://twitter.com/M_Raj03/status/1244610129774993409?s=20

“In this tough time for the country this is the only way we can help the people because we can’t go out of our house neither we could allow someone to come in,” Poonam told Women’s CricZone on Monday (March 30). According to Government of India’s COVID-19 website, the current numbers stand at 942 active cases with 100 already cured in the country. The number of casualties have risen to 29.

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“I was thinking of donating for a long time. Actually I was about to pay yesterday (March 29) but the amount limit in Google Pay (an online transaction platform) is Rs 50,000. So I tried through some other platform today and it finally it happened,” added the leggie who took highest number of wickets for India in the recently-concluded T20 World Cup with 10 scalps in Australia earlier this month.

Earlier, Poonam’s teammates Richa Ghosh and Nuzhat Parween too made contributions to the fund. While Richa donated Rs 1 lakh to the West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund, Nuzhat donated an undisclosed amount to the PM-CARES Fund. Former cricketer, Mithu Mukherjee, who played four Test matches for India also desired to donate Rs 25,000 for the cause.

The BCCI has also donated Rs 51 crore a couple of days ago to PM-CARES Fund.