Australian cricket star Pat Cummins has donated $50,000 to go towards medical supplies in India as the country battles a devastating COVID-19 crisis.
Cummins is in India playing for IPL club Kolkata Knight Riders and he says he’s grown to love the country dearly over the years.
“To know so many are suffering so much at this time saddens me greatly,” Australia’s Test vice-captain said on social media.
His donation to the PM CARES Fund will go towards much-needed oxygen supplies for coronavirus patients at India’s overwhelmed hospitals.
“At times like this it is easy to feel helpless. I’ve certainly felt that of late,” Cummins said.
“But I hope by making this public appeal we can all channel our emotions into action that will bring light into people’s lives.
“I know my donation isn’t much in the grand scheme of things, but I hope it will make a difference to someone.”
Cummins, who is staying put in India for now, called on other IPL players to contribute.
“And anyone else around the world who has been touched by India’s passion and generosity,” the fast bowler said.
His Twitter post has been liked more than 350,000 times, shared over 100,000 times and prompted thousands of replies.
Cummins was purchased by Kolkata for a record $3.1 million in an IPL auction in December 2019.
The IPL is continuing in a COVID-safe bubble and Cummins noted the discussion about whether it was appropriate to continue playing as the crisis deepened.
He said he’d been told the Indian Government believed the IPL provided a few hours of respite for the country at a difficult time.
Meanwhile, fellow Australian players Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa and Kane Richardson are leaving the IPL as COVID-19 infections surge to unprecedented levels in India.
Tye was flown out of India on Sunday night after requesting a release from the Rajasthan Royals on personal grounds amid growing unease about the path back to Australia.
Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday said leg-spinner Zampa and paceman Richardson had been given permission to return home for personal reasons.
The Australian government, having already reduced passenger numbers from India, is set to discuss a temporary ban on all repatriation flights.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Such a true comment. The gesture is wonderful, but in India, one needs to scratch rather deeply beneath the surface to ensure that the gesture is actually impactful and not just absorbed into an administrative/baksheesh-oriented wasteland.
Just Nuisance
Roar Rookie
Nice going Pat.. Respect..
Philbert
Guest
You could argue that any of the CA has a duty of care to any of the CA contracted players currently in the IPL. All CA have done is given them a NOC, not suspended or severed the contract. As the employer, you would expect CA would want to find a way to protect their asset. However, as Chris Lynn is not contracted by CA, then he's hardly got any right to yell to CA or the government. He knew the risks when he went there.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I think what he was saying was that of the 10% of his IPL payment ($408,000) that goes to CA (so $40k) and the same with the 10% that CA takes from the other players’ payments, that CA should dip into this to pay for charter flights. — So not from taxpayers, but still, why should CA pay anything? Yes they take 10% (a “licence fee” in a way I suppose), but he – and others – are only in the IPL earning that money in the first place due to the investment CA and their State associations have made in furthering their playing careers. — The fact the he would make this proposition publicly through media, rather than through private discussions with CA, is pretty off IMO.
Mick Gold Coast QLD
Roar Guru
Good on him, well done. He offers a mature, professional and realistic contrast to some hit and giggle bloke, Chris Lynn, who is over there earning a fortune and yesterday was bagging the Australian government for not putting on a special plane to fly special cricketers back home to Australia, paid for by un-special ordinary taxpayers. These would be the same taxpayers who some years ago paid for his Follow Your Dream Degree at the QLD Academy of Sport, for a return of 4 one day matches and a markedly unremarkable average for a season and a bit. Dunno if he paid them back from his dream following earnings on four continents during the decade since.
Vas Venkatramani
Roar Guru
As usual with Pat, he is a class act. My only concern is the destination of his generosity: the PM Cares fund was set up initially to help Indians at the outset of COVID-19 last year, yet has been subject to numerous scandals regarding where donations are going, and is yet to be subject to public audit. While this is a generalisation, the endemic corruption within Indian politics makes Australia's look like rank amateurs. There is a reason why India's rise as an economic power is courtesy of private enterprise. I'm just hoping the benevolence of Pat and any other cricketer that follows in his footsteps will help the right people in India, and not just be shoveled away in some government official bank account never to be accounted for.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
CA made that decision re South Africa and other tours, whereas the players are at the IPL at their own discretion; still you are right in that there was plenty of noise from some players re a reluctance to travel to SA.
CPM
Roar Rookie
That’s generous of him, but to be brutally honest by staying he is making a lot more than the 50k. Then you wonder why is a bio bubble ok for the IPL and not for scheduled tours which they (Aussie Cricketers) pulled out of citing “covid situation” and “bio bubbles”
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Especially in that tux.
Paul
Roar Guru
He's a class act.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
Have met Pat Cummins on a couple of occasions and a gesture like this doesn't surprise me . It's a pity there's not more like him and hope he gets home safely.