The Bangladesh national cricketers came up with decision to donate half of their monthly salary to government fund in a bid to fight against coronavirus pandemic.
A total of 27 cricketers are donating half of their monthly salaries amongst which 17 players are in BCB contract list and remaining 10 players have played in the national team recently.
Bangladesh’s ODI captain Tamim Iqbal donates BDT 325,000, which is the 50 percent of his total monthly salary of BDT 650,000. Mushfiqur Rahim whose month salary is BDT 620,000 donates BDT 310,000. Like them all of the players are donating the 50 percent of their monthly salary.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza who has recently gave up the ODI captaincy, also were the 27 players who has recently played for the national team. As per previous contract, Mashrafe’s monthly salary was BDT 450,000 form which he donates BDT 225,000.
Senior players like Tamim Iqbal, Mushfiqur Rahim took their social media handle to disclose the matter. Both of them however also gave a statement through their facebook, which is almost same.
“The whole world is fighting against coronavirus pandemic. The outbreak of coronavirus is also increasing in Bangladesh. We, the cricketers, are trying to aware people in social media to take necessary steps to prevent this pandemic,” the statement reads.
“But we believe we have many more things to do rather than just increasing awareness among people. 17 players, who are in the central contract of BCB, and 10 other players who took part in recent series for national team; in total we are 27 cricketers giving half of our monthly salaries to help against coronavirus. After excluding the tax the amount might be approximately 25 lakh around,” it further reads.
“May be this fund is not that much compare to the fight against coronavirus. But if we all together can contribute from our own position, then in combined, it might be a bigger step to fight against coronavirus. If we can take the responsibilities and try to make contribution wholeheartedly rather than criticizing others, then we can win the war against coronavirus. Everyone please stay home, stay safe. Be well and keep our country safe.”
Players are discussing with the BCB about where the donation should be given as there is no official fund formed by the government yet for the pandemic coronavirus, confirmed cricket operations manager Sabbir Khan.
Meanwhile, The Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) has confirmed that one more person has died of coronavirus (Covid-19) infection in Bangladesh, taking the number of deaths from the disease in the country to five.
As of Wednesday, the numbers of total infected people in Bangladesh stand at 39. On Monday, Bangladesh government declared a 10-day shutdown, effective from March 26 to April 4, to battle the spread of the coronavirus.
Both the private and public sectors, except emergency services, would come to a temporary halt. Educational institutions will stay closed during this period but banks will remain open to facilitate the financial transaction for their clients.
At the same time, Bangladesh’s armed forces were deployed to assist the administration in every divisional and district town to ensure that people maintain social distance and are taking precautionary measures to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading further.
Covid-19, a new strain of coronavirus, which was first reported in China’s Wuhan has killed at least 16,558 people across the world and infected 381,649 till date. At least 102,429 people have recovered from the virus which has spread to 195 countries.
