COVID-19: Mushfiqur Rahim puts his maiden double-century bat on auction

Dhaka, April 20:  Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim will be putting his most cherished bat on auction in order to raise funds for the relief efforts put in place in the country to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Mushfiqur will be putting the bat -- with which he scored his first double hundred against Sri Lanka at Galle in 2013 -- for online sale and has urged people to contribute to the cause so that maximum funds can be generated for the poor.

"I am putting up the bat with which I made a double hundred for auction," Mushfiqur told the Dhaka-based Bengali daily ‘Prothom Alo'.

"It will be put up online, so let's see how we can go about it. I urge everyone with the ability to push up the price of the bat since the proceeds will be spent entirely for the poor people," he added.

Last week, Shakib-al-Hasan had called upon the players to auction their belongings like jerseys and cricket equipments.

"We can do anything like that. It can also be a bat with any of our autographs. We can auction these things through Facebook or the foundation," Shakib had said on Facebook Live.

More than 2000 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported and many people have also lost their lives till now in Bangladesh.

England batsman Jos Butter had raised more than 65,000 pounds for two London-based hospitals by auctioning the shirt which he wore in the 2019 World Cup final.

Legendary Pakistan bowler Wasim Akram also auctioned a bat and ball signed by him to raise funds for a charity as the entire world fights against COVDI-19 pandemic which has so far claimed more than 1.6 lakh lives.