Hanuma Vihari slams fan for asking him to pay for COVID-19 relief alone
Indian red-ball specialist Hanuma Vihari lashed out at an Instagram user on Saturday for questioning his support for COVID-19 relief.
Hanuma Vihari, constantly providing help to the needy through various social media campaigns, asked for support for one such financially-strained lady on Instagram.
While most of his fans appreciated the effort, one of them asked Vihari to help the lady himself, just because he is a "famous athlete." The 27-year-old reacted strongly, saying that India is going through such a difficult time because of people like him.
“Why don’t you pay man !!!! You’re a famous athlete,” wrote the user.
“It’s a shame but india is in this position because there are people like you living in this country. Real shame!!” Hanuma Vihari retored.
Apart from using his fanbase to amplify the pandemic-ridden people's needs, Hanuma Vihari also recently created a group of 100 volunteers. They facilitate people with plasma, oxygen cylinders, and hospital beds. He also spoke about the same in an interview on Saturday.
"I thought I have to use the followers on my social media in the best way I can. It started slowly. I tried to interact with people. I realised a lot of people are in need of a lot of things. I put a post on Instagram. I am very fortunate that most of my followers joined me. We are close to 100 people in our WhatsApp group. We try to solve every problem of the patients, if we can't solve it in our group, I post it on social media," Vihari told Sports Today.
Hanuma Vihari in the County Championship
Meanwhile, Hanuma Vihari is plying his trade for Warwickshire in the ongoing County Championship in England. The gritty middle-order batter has recorded scores of 0 and 8 against Nottinghamshire, 32 and 52 against Essex, and finally 0 and 8 against Durham so far.
Although the numbers could be considered an underperformance, Hanuma Vihari is getting some critical match practice ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) Final and the Test series against England.
This will come in handy, especially considering the cramped schedule for all other players who will arrive from India later in the month. The WTC Final is scheduled for June 18-22 in Southampton followed by five Tests against Joe Root's team, beginning on August 4.