The Indian cricket fraternity has stood firmly behind Jacob Martin who is battling for life in his hometown of Vadodara since December 28 after being involved in a two-wheeler accident.
Martin, a former India batsman, was the skipper of Baroda when it won its first Ranji Trophy title in 2000-01.
Martin, 46, suffered grievous injuries to his lung and liver after the accident and has been put on a ventilator at a private hospital ever since.
After exhausting all the savings, Martin’s wife reached out to Sanjay Patel, the former Baroda Cricket Association (BCA) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, when the hospital had warned of limiting the treatment due to escalating costs.
Jacob Martin, who suffered grievous injuries to his lung and liver after an accident, has been on ventilator support.
Sanjay helped Martin’s family get in touch with the BCCI and BCA. While the BCCI responded by disbursing ₹5 lakh from its Benevolent Fund, the BCA contributed ₹3 lakh for the medical expenses.
But with the treatment costing at least ₹70,000 per day, Sanjay, along with a few prominent members, decided to reach out to the former International players of Baroda.
Solid support
“It took just a text message and a phone call to Zaheer [Khan], Ravi [Shastri], the Pathan brothers (Irfan and Yusuf), the Pandya brothers (Krunal and Hardik), Ashish (Nehra) and Munaf [Patel],” Sanjay informed The Hindu on Monday.
“All of them have voluntarily come forward to help the family. Sourav [Ganguly] called me after reading about it in a newspaper and has been of great support. In fact, we have got support from some genuine fans from Mumbai who have offered to help.”
Sanjay hoped that with the help of those who have played with Martin and those who looked up to him during his playing days, the former middle-order batsman will recover soon.
“With the help and blessings of the cricket fraternity, it looks like Jacob’s medical treatment will be taken care of.
“Now let’s hope he gets out of the critical care unit at the earliest and starts recovering from the unfortunate accident.”
Martin played 10 ODIs and 138 First Class matches during his prolonged career from 1991-92 till 2008-09.
