Former Kiwi pacer Iain O’Brien resorts to crowd-funding to arrange money for his flight back home amid Coronavirus debacle

The spread of coronavirus has jolted many families across the globe. The entire world has entered into a panic state. With borders being locked down to prevent people from travelling, many people have been separated from their families at this time. The former New Zealand pacer Iain O’Brien is facing a similar issue.

Since retiring from all forms of cricket, O’Brien has been living in England with his wife and two children for the past five years. It is only recently that he travelled back to New Zealand after 5 years as he was suffering from mental health issues. But, after he came to New Zealand to visit his home country, the former fast bowler got stuck in the country due to the outbreak of coronavirus.

Flights to the UK are being cancelled due to Coronavirus outbreak

He attempted to get back to England and to be with his family but he failed. According to him, three of his flights to the United Kingdom were cancelled due to the locking down of the international borders all across the globe. The thing is that his wife, who is living in the UK at this moment, has a rare lung condition. The coronavirus is also susceptible to people with lung issues, which makes it all the more important for her husband to fly back to the UK.

The former Blackcap urged his fans to raise some money for his flight tickets till the UK. He posted a tweet stating that he is trying to raise money so that he can be with his wife in these testing times. He offered the fans to have a one-on-one interaction with him for 20 minutes, in return of which they can contribute to his cause.

“Ok, so trying to raise some money to pay for this flight back to the UK. I have an idea. If anyone would love a 20 min Skype/vid call, one on one, talk about all things cricket, politics, sausages, mental health, Sachin, etc If you’d like that & can spare a couple of $£, DM me”, he posted on Twitter.

Iain O’Brien played for New Zealand from 2005 till 2009. During this time, he featured in 22 Test matches and picked up 73 wickets. He also played 10 ODI and picked up 14 wickets. His T20I career was very short as he managed only six wickets in his four matches. After retiring, he became a cricket expert in the UK and also wrote a book titled, “Pirates don’t play cricket”.

In a recent interview, he had spoken about the fact that how scared he is for his wife. The big bit for me is my wife has a lung condition where if she gets any sort of chest infection it can take time off her life,” O’Brien was quoted as saying by the ‘stuff.co.nz’.

“This virus could kill her. With a couple of kids for her to deal with, and her mum is 80, there’s a fair bit on her plate at the moment. I would be kind of keen to take some of that stress off her but I think I’m just adding to it at the moment,” said O’Brien.