Shahid Afridi buys Mushfiqur Rahim's bat for $20,000 on behalf of his foundation

The Coronavirus pandemic has led to the people across the world, especially the poor, struggling. With lockdown in most countries, the daily wage workers have found it tough to survive. The same is the case in Bangladesh which has so far reported more than 20,000 cases with almost 300 people losing their lives. During these tough times, the cricketers in the country have come forward to help the needy.

One of them is Mushfiqur Rahim who decided to auction his bat with which he scored his maiden double hundred against Sri Lanka in 2013. He had already declared that the funds raised will go to the COVID-19 relief work in the country. But when the auction got underway a few days ago, several fraud bidders played spoilsport which led to the cricketer suspending the process.

Later, former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi contacted Rahim and expressed his wish to buy the bat for $ 20,000 on behalf of his foundation. “We had to suspend the auction due to some fraud bidders, which was unexpected. Shahid bhai personally contacted me after seeing the news (of my bat put on auction). He sent an offer letter on May 13 that he was interested to buy for USD 20,000, which is almost BDT 16.8 lakh,” Rahim was quoted as saying by ESPNCricinfo.

The work you are doing is great, says Shahid Afridi to Mushfiqur Rahim

Mushfiqur Rahim also posted the video message from Shahid Afridi on his official Twitter handle and thanked him for the support. In the video, Afridi has praised the former for his kind gesture and also felt that this is the time everyone should join hands and support each other.

“The work you are doing is great. Only real-life heroes do this. We are going through a tough phase in such times we need the love and support of each other. I want to buy your bat on behalf of all of Pakistan. Our prayers are with you. Hopefully, we will again meet on the cricket ground once this is over,” Afridi said.