NEW DELHI: Parliamentarians on Sunday were seen taking on each other, but not inside the House. They squared off on a cricket field in a friendly 20-over match played at Delhi’s Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium to raise awareness against tuberculosis.
Lok Sabha Speaker XI, led by Hamirpur MP Anurag Thakur, defeated the Rajya Sabha Chairman XI by 73 runs. Thakur was adjudged the ‘man of the match’ for his unbeaten innings of 111 runs. Union minister Kiren Rijiju led the RS team. All MPs wore jerseys with a message -- ‘TB Harega Aur Bharat Jitega’ (TB will lose and India will win). Playing first, LS Speaker XI team set a target of 251 but the RS team could score 178 runs with a loss of eight wickets. Former cricketer Mohammad Azharuddin playing for the RS team scored 74 runs.
Best bowler award was given to Deepender Singh Hooda while the best fielder was Nishikant Dubey. Azharuddin was declared best batman and the golden duck was jointly held by Ram Mohan Naidu and Imran Pratapgarhi.
Inaugurating the match, Speaker Om Birla said, “The Parliament of India represents 140 crore people and expects that the society should benefit from the experience of the public representatives. We have to make India TB free by 2025 and this friendly match of MPs will work to spread awareness about TB eradication. If we all work with full determination to spread awareness about TB elimination in our respective areas, then we will definitely be successful in eradicating TB from India.”
At the closing ceremony, Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal said,”Such events will give more strength to the resolution of the PM to make India TB free by 2025.”
Thakur said, “Awareness about TB should reach every corner of the country. To promote this cause, we have united with team spirit, without any politics. State governments should also come forward to spread awareness against TB through such events. The target of eradicating TB worldwide is 2031. From 2015, there has been a 38 percent decline in TB related deaths in India. There is an approximate 18 percent decline in new cases.”