In a country like India where citizens worship cricket as a religion, the competition to reach a significant stage in one’s cricketing carer is very difficult. Most young girls and boys dream of becoming a cricketer and in between the immense competition, only a very few can fulfill this dream. Many unwillingly stop playing the sport because of many reasons, be it physical issues or financial problems. Such is the story of Raja Babu, a specially-abled cricketer from Uttar Pradesh.
The Specially-Abled Cricketer Excetued A Phenomenal Performance!
Raja Babu is quite a popular name in Meerut for his unbelievable knock of 67 runs in just 20 balls against Delhi in a national-level tournament held in 2017. He is a differently-abled cricketer and his terrific performance of hitting the quick half-century received a lot of appreciation and love. In fact, his knock was famous as ‘Hausalon ki Udaan’ in Meerut. A local businessman gifted Raja an e-rickshaw during that time. He was awarded many honours in UP and Gujarat in 2016. He won the ‘man of the match’ title in a nationwide match. The cricketer was honoured by the Bihar government in 2016 too.
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His Finacial Condition Is Very Poor Now!
Everything was going quite smoothly till the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world. The 31-year-old cricketer is one of the many millions who lost his source of income because of the pandemic. Everything came to a halt and it put an end to the left-handed batter’s career. The charitable organisation, the Divyang Cricket Association, which supported specially-abled cricketers such as Raja and more could not continue it as they faced a financial crisis.
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Raja shared with Navbharat Times how he faced a very difficult time at the beginning of the pandemic. In the initial couple of months, he sold milk on the streets of Ghaziabad. He also drove the e-rickshaw gifted by the local businessman to meet his and his family’s ends. He continues to drive the e-rickshaw even now and he drives it for about 10 hours every day. Even after staying on the roads and carrying people for such a long duration, Raja hardly earns ₹250-300 every day. It is not enough to meet the expenses of his family and sadly he hardly can save money to educate his children, Krishna and Shaanvi.
Though times are very hard for him now, he still holds a positive perspective on the future. He is very optimistic about the days coming ahead.