Wheelchair cricketer looks for government job

Differently abled Y Vinoth Babu who came to Ramanathapuram Collectorate seeking government job on Monday.

Ramanathapuram

Differently abled Y Vinoth Babu, an all-rounder in the India wheelchair cricket team and played for the country, has appealed to the district administration to help him to get a government job and financial support to continue to play for the country.

Babu, 29, a paraplegic, right from birth, had been knocking at the doors of various government offices in vain to get a job. He visited the Collectorate here on Monday – the International Day for Disabled Persons, hoping for a job and financial support for buying cricket kits.

Hailing Keelaselvanur in the district, Babu who had lost his parents at young age, joined medicine at the Kilpauk Medical College hospital in Chennai under the quota for disabled persons ten years ago but dropped out after one and a half years ago due to various reasons.

Later he pursued cricket, his childhood passion and got selected for the Indian team after playing in the wheelchair cricket premier league, held in Agra in January, 2018 but a government job continued to elude, he said. He had played for India in the triangular cricket series held at Rudrapur in Uttarakhand in March, 2018.

After presenting a petition to District Revenue Officer (DRO) S Muthumari as Collector K Veera Raghava Rao was on leave, he met Minister for Information Technology M Manikandan who assured to get him a job. The Minister gave him ₹10,000 for buying cricket kit.

Babu claimed that he was selected to play for the country in a tournament to be held in New Zealand in January, 2019.

Though the Disabled Sporting Society has offered to bear the boarding, lodging and travel expenses, he required at least ₹30,000 to meet other expenses and looked for sponsors. Thanking the Minister for partly meeting his financial requirement, he said he would go ahead with the trip without borrowing money if some sponsors helped him. Married and blessed with two sons, Babu said that he had been a burden to his uncle all these years and would stand on his own if the government helped him with a job.