Rajasthan Royals left-arm pacer Chetan Sakariya opened up on the case of a health emergency within his family and how the IPL has helped him a great deal.
Only 23, Sakariya was picked by RR at the IPL 2021 auction in February for a sum of INR 1.20 crores. Having received a part of his salary, the youngster said he immediately transferred it to his family to ensure his father’s good health.
“I was lucky because I had received my part payment from Rajasthan Royals a few days ago,” Sakariya said. “I straight away transferred money back home, and that is helping my family the most in my toughest time.”
he said in an interview with The New Indian Express,
Sakariya cited his own case to respond to people who were pushing for the IPL 2021 to called off because of the crisis borne out of the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he is the sole bread earner of his family and cricket is his only source of income, and it helped him arrange for his father’s necessary treatments.
“People are saying stop IPL. I want to tell them something; I am the only bread earner in my family. Cricket is the only source of my earnings. I can give better treatment to my father because of the money I earned from IPL,”
he said.
“Had this tournament not happened for a month, it would have been tougher for me. I come from a poor family; my father all his life drove tempo; and because of IPL my whole life, was about to change,”
Sakariya added.
Sakariya earned IPL recognition from Rajasthan Royals after impressing with his performances for Saurashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, India’s senior state-based domestic T20 competition, earlier this year. He took 12 wickets from his 5 outings in the tournament while going for only 4.90 runs per over and bagged his scalps at just 8.16 runs per piece.
During his prematurely halted stint with RR also, Sakariya showed an inspiring temperament and never looked fazed by the magnitude of the occasion. The seamer made excellent use of the left-arm angle and brought the ball into and away from the right-handers, besides also employing his slow-ball variations to good effect.
Despite bowling the tough overs, Sakariya took 7 wickets from his 7 outings while carrying an economy rate of 8.22 in IPL 2021. He emerged as one of the bright spots for an inconsistent Royals team.
RR languished in the bottom half of the points table when the tournament was suspended on Tuesday. The inaugural season champions won 3 and lost 4 of their 7 matches before the IPL 2021 was postponed indefinitely.
The BCCI and IPL governing council were forced to suspend the competition because of news of bio-bubble breaches in Delhi and Ahmedabad and multiple coronavirus positive cases in four different teams’ camps.
While the IPL 2021 bubble was being deemed vulnerable for a while, things went down drastically earlier this week when two of the KKR cricketers and three non-playing members of the Chennai Super Kings contingent tested COVID-19 positive.
This was followed by the postponement of the Riders’ encounter on Monday against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Ahmedabad and CSK, informing the BCCI that they won’t be able to play their scheduled fixture on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Wriddhiman Saha and Amit Mishra of Delhi Capitals also joined the positive tested individuals and that only triggered the ultimate call from the BCCI.
