Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday spoke to 40 eminent sports personalities of the country, which included former India cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly and Badminton World Champion PV Sindhu, via video call to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis caused by the novel coronavirus.

The conference call, which also featured India men’s cricket team captain Virat Kohli and vice-captain Rohit Sharma, was conducted in an attempt to reach out to the masses of this country as it fights a stiff battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The other prominent athletes who took part in the call, also attended by Union Sports Minister of India Kiren Rijiju, were Pullela Gopichand, Hima Das, Bajrang Punia, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, and Cheteshwar Pujara.

India is currently under a 21-day nationwide lockdown till April 14 in its bid to curb the rise of the deadly virus. But repeated appeals from the health authorities and the government officials to stay inside have fallen to deaf ears.

With visuals of people defying the lockdown guidelines and flocking out of their homes appearing, Modi’s move was aimed at creating the much-required awareness about the dangers of and the measures needed to be taken against COVID-19 in the nation through its sports stars.

Quoting a source in the know of developments, a report on IANS stated that Modi spoke to them about ways in which more efforts can be made to reach every citizen in the country so that the directives issued by the health department are followed by one and all.

“The Prime Minister had an interaction with not just cricketers, but also sports personalities from other fields. The basic idea was to ensure that they can then go ahead and pass on the message of staying safe and staying indoors to the masses,” the source said.

“The PM acknowledged the contribution the sports persons have made in spreading awareness and said that this is a battle that the country has to fight together and no better way than to get sports personalities to reach out to their fans and followers further,” it added.

Meanwhile, the novel corona virus, which has already affected over 2,500 people and killed more than 70, has forced all the sporting events in the country into a standstill like in most parts of the world.