Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday (April 3) interacted with top athletes of the country via a video conference, which included members from the cricket fraternity as well. Currently the country is in the middle of a nationwide 21-day lockdown to combat the global pandemic.
Meanwhile, during the interaction, the Prime Minister reportedly appealed to the athletes to spread awareness amongst the common people regarding the ways of dealing with the deadly virus.
According to report published at Sportstar, there were eleven top present and former cricketers attended the video conference which included the likes of Virat Kohli, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni and others.
“It was a one-hour programme, where the Prime Minister addressed the athletes and asked them to spread awareness. He advised them to follow the advisory and maintain social distancing,” Olympian Anju Bobby George was quoted saying by Sportstar in that report.
While Modi addressed the athletes for nearly half an hour, a few of the players like Ganguly and 2016 Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu also shared their thoughts.
“He told the athletes to stay strong and positive. He even drew reference of the Olympic postponement and the fact that IPL has also been suspended (till April 15). These are tough times, so he asked us to spread awareness and stay bonded as a community,” Anju further added.
Cricketers present in the video conference:
Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Virender Sehwag, Mohammad Shami, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan.