Bollywood celebrities defeat MPs in T20 cricket match

By Nivedita

Dharamshala, April 8 (IANS) Mumbai Heroes, captained by actor Bobby Deol, coasted to en easy win over the MPs XI, led by Lok Sabha member and former BCCI President Anurag Thakur, in a T20 cricket match held here on Saturday as a part of TB Free India Summit.

The goodwill cricket match was the part of TB-Free India Summit that brought together celebrities, international experts, and Members of Parliament from across party lines, in the city. The summit and the INDIA vs TB Cricket match was the new initiative to focus attention on ways to increase awareness about the disease, strive for its elimination, increase multi-sectoral participation, and encourage greater participation from the private sector.

The match took place at the picturesque Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium here and one witnessed the excited players like Sohail Khan, Sonu Sood, Bobby along with ministers like Shahnawaz Hussain doing some stretch exercises before giving their best shot on ground.

The MPs team won the toss and elected to bat first with ex-cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin taking the charge as an opener along with cricketer Prashant Chopra who chose to bat for the parliamentarians. Soon India's ex-skipper left the ground, retired hurt while trying to take a run.

As Thakur joined Chopra, they struck up a good partnership, taking up the team's score to 213.

Thakur was out with a score of 54 while Chopra made 145 runs. Sidhant Mohapatra scored 5 runs for his team, while actor Raja Bherwani of Mumbai Heroes took a wicket for the team.

Mumbai started on a descent note, with openers Sunny Dulgach and Jay Bhanushali setting a course for their team's victory.

Sunny received the Best Batsman award and Chopra was adjudged the Man of the Match.

As per WHO's Global TB Report 2016, India accounts for 24 per cent of all TB cases in the world. Almost 5,000 TB deaths are reported globally daily, with India alone having an alarming 1,400 of them. However, the incidence of TB in India is declining at the rate of about 2 per cent per year and there is a need to accelerate progress to reach the national strategic plan to eliminate the disease by 2025.

The Summit was an initiative of Thakur, and jointly hosted by HPCA, the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, USAID, Challenge TB, and the WHO.

Addressing the summit, Union Health & Family Welfare Minister J.P. Nadda said: "The government is committed to ending TB by 2025. Today, the RNTCP treats over 10 million TB patients. But meeting the 2025 goal requires us to be aggressive in our approach and have a fresh way of thinking. We must tackle TB head-on, in the public and private sector, and a summit likes this gives us the opportunity to look for new ways to this."

Thakur added: "The Indian Parliament for the first time raised the issue of Sustainable Goal 3 which deals with health and well-being, this is a major step after the release of the National Health Policy. Parliamentarians are unanimous that we must educate and create awareness about TB. This is the first TB-Free India summit and we will work together to eliminate TB from India."

MPs' XI and Mumbai Heroes pledged their support to the TB-Free India campaign and committed to increase awareness, support for zero stigma and zero discrimination and dedicate their time, energy and resources to ending TB in the country.

(Nivedita can be contacted at nivedita.s@ians.in)