Virat Kohli joins Arul Lal’s mission to fund treatment of cancer-plagued children

Kolkata, Sep 22: He is being hailed as one of the top celebrities in the country. After scoring more than 3000 runs in three formats of the game in the last one year, Virat Kohli now seems to be flying high in the sky.

But, the Indian captain has not forgotten the dark side of the human life. On Wednesday, former Indian cricketer Arun Lal met with Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri at the Eden Gardens when the team’s practice session was called off.

Arun Lal, who was also the captain of Ranji Trophy winning Bengal team, has recently won a grueling battle against cancer. Following a couple of treatments, Lal is back to the normal life although he has restricted himself from commentary due to his physicians’ instruction.

Lal now wants to help the cancer-plagued children on a regular basis by providing free treatment and food.

On Thursday he said, “I used to observe a lot of child patients in the city-based hospital where I was admitted. All those children were plagued by cancerous disease. More importantly, all the children came from very poor family. During my stay in the hospital for almost seven-eight months, I decided to stand beside those children. But I needed a strong fund to help them on a regular basis.”

Lal is also the president of Kolkata’s one of the most prestigious clubs, Calcutta Cricket & Football Club (CC&FC). In a bid to build up the fund, Lal has initiated a huge function in the coming month of November to celebrate 225 years of CC&FC and in the function, Lal is planning to bring in some of India top cricketers.

He said, “I came to Eden Gardens to invite Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri to attend the function. The money raised from the sale of tickets and other items on the occasion will be donated to those children.

"Kohli, after having heard about the whole project and my intention, was so generous that he has promised me to attend the function as well as he has come forward with financial help for the cancer-plagued children in future as well.”