Cricketing legend Steve Waugh once said, “If you don’t help people who are in need, it’s just not cricket.” We have seen many cricketers follow this religiously, devoting a part of their cricket earned income to charity. From funding medical research to providing roof to the homeless, our favourite cricketers have been winning hearts off the field as well.
Here are 5 such cricketers who have actively participated in charity works time and again.
#1 Sachin Tendulkar
The God of Cricket prefers keeping his off-field life behind the curtains. But some of his charity-driven work has been established in public domain by media. Sachin Tendulkar has been a huge supporter of Apnalaya, an NGO that is apparently close to his mother-in-law, the president of the NGO, who has dedicated nearly four decades of her life to it.
Through the medium of Apnalaya, the little master sponsors around 200 disadvantaged children every year.
In the year 2011, Tendulkar raised a corpus fund of Rs. 1.20 crores to help more than 300 kids in their treatment of cancer. In 2013, again, he came to limelight for his charity work when along with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, he aided the Coca-Cola-NDTV ‘Support My School’ campaign to collect Rs. 13 crores towards the resurrection of 272 Indian schools.
More recently, the cricketer turned MP’s philanthropic side was seen again when he adopted a drought-affected village under a parliament scheme called the Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana programme. Each Member of Parliament under this programme needs to choose one village from their constituency and develop it as a model village.
Tendulkar selected Donja village in Maharashtra's Osmanabad district.
#2 Steve Waugh
To draw a comparison between one humanitarian and another may appear partisan, but it is inescapable to not single out former Australian skipper Steve Waugh when it comes to societal welfare.
His efforts to help raise funds for rehabilitating leprosy patients’ children of Udayan, in Kolkata is nothing short of remarkable because it for the cause of children who are thousands of miles away from his own country.
In the year 2009, Waugh also introduced the India chapter of the Steve Waugh Foundation, the aim of which is to improve the lives of children suffering from rare diseases. Waugh seemed to have been inspired by Mother Teresa in his philanthropic side.
“India gave me this life-changing moment when I met Mother Teresa in Kolkata. Mother Teresa was a catalyst,” Waugh said at the inauguration in Kolkata. His visits to India, especially Kolkata, are frequent and he calls the country his second home.
#3 Mahela Jayawardene
After the star Sri Lankan batsman lost his own brother to cancer, Mahela Jayawardene’s efforts to help attenuate the sufferings of those afflicted by the life-threatening disease were noticed. He is a big supporter of the HOPE cancer project.
In 2011, he took part in two separate days of a 27-day sponsored trek from the southern tip of Sri Lanka to its northernmost extremity, devoted to the project – covering a distance of 670km on foot. He also has plans to start the first ever cancer hospital in his country, a 750-bed cancer unit at Maharagama, a suburb in Colombo.
#4 Yuvraj Singh
Yuvraj Singh is one Indian cricketer who has taken to charity in a big way. Following his heroic battle with cancer, the power hitter formed the “YouWeCan”, an initiative of the Yuvraj Singh Foundation, which aims to tackle cancer at an early stage.
The aim of the initiative is two-fold: create awareness about the disease and eradicate the socio-psychological stigma attached with cancer. It also aims at providing mobile cancer examination stations within the reach of masses, to make routine check- ups a habit.
Yuvraj’s battle with cancer has been an inspirational story, and the batsman has been often heard spreading awareness about it in media.
#5 Imran Khan
Imran Khan began the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, a state-of-the-art charitable organization in the name and memory of his mother. The trust provides free medical care for thousands since its opening in 1994.
This is Pakistan’s first and only cancer hospital which was started after raising donations exceeding $25 million from all over the world. The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust has spent over RS 12 billion to support thousands of needy cancer patients.
Imran was also the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund’s (UNICEF) Special Representative for Sports and promoted health and immunization programmes in several countries around the world.
#6 Ian Botham
The England all-rounder supports charitable causes with long-distance charity walks and he has done a total of 12 of them so far. His first walk in 1985 was a 900-mile trek from John o’ Groats to Land’s End — the whole length of the island of Great Britain.
His charitable efforts were triggered when visited a hospital to treat a broken toe but mistakenly entered into a children’s ward. Botham was shaken to hear that few of the children had only a few more days to live.
Ever since, he has raised more than £12 million for charity, with research in leukemia among the main beneficiaries. In 2003, Botham became the first-ever President of Leukemia Research, UK’s leading blood cancer charity. He also earned knighthood in 2007 from Queen Elizabeth II.
On the field or off it, some cricketers know how to win heart either ways.
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