Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli join in after PM Narendra Modi organizes a video conference with sportspersons

As the country continues to serve 21-day lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took an initiative to have a video conference with some of the leading athletes in India. The PM talked about the outbreak of COVID-19 and shared five mantras on how to tackle this. His five-point mantras were Sankalp, Sanyam, Sakaratmakta, Samman and Sahyog.

According to PM Narendra Modi, sportspersons who have brought glory to the nation, now have to step up for some different reason. The PM feels sportspersons should help spread positivity across the nation in these desperate times. As per the reports from PMO, the sportsperson conveyed their gratitude to PM Narendra Modi for the support from medical professionals and police.

49 athletes participated in the video conference

49 athletes participated in this video conference in which the Prime Minister was there along with Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju. The athletes who were present are:

PT Usha (Athletics), Yogeshwar Dutt (Wrestling), Pullela Gopichand (Badminton), Vishwanathan Anand (Chess), Hima Das (Athletics), Bajrang Punia (Wrestling), Manika Batra (Table Tennis), Rani Rampal (Hockey), Deepika Kumari (Archery), Mirabai Chanu (Weightlifting), Neeraj Chopra (Athletics), Sharad Kumar (Para Athletics – High Jump).

Apurvi Chandela (Shooting), Tarundeep Rai (Archery), Mary Kom (Boxing), Bhaichung Bhutia (Football), Sardara Singh (Hockey), PV Sindhu (Badminton), Achanta Sharath Kamal (Table Tennis), Amit Panghal (Boxing), Gagan Narang (Shooting), Anju Bobby George (Athletics), Vinesh Phogat (Wrestling), Rohan Bopanna (Tennis), Manu Bhaker (Shooting), Ankita Raina (Tennis), Sai Praneeth (Badminton), Srihari Natraj (Swimming), Harmeet Desai (Table Tennis), Abhishek Verma (Shooting), Avinash Sable (Athletics), KT Irfan (Athletics), Lovlina Boroghain (Boxing), Simranjeet Kaur (Boxing), Jeremy (Weightlifting), Bhavani Devi (Fencing), Pramod Bhagat (Para Badminton), Mamatha Poojary (Kabaddi).

Several famous cricketers also took part in this video conference. The cricketers were Zaheer Khan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Mohammed Shami, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara and Yuvraj Singh.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held meeting with 40 top sportspersons, including Sachin Tendulkar, PV Sindhu and Hima Das, via video conferencing today, on #COVID19 situation in the country. pic.twitter.com/eC4xKceL4a

— ANI (@ANI) April 3, 2020

All the sporting events have been shut down in the country and there is no sporting event going on currently. The conversations between the Prime Minister and the sportspersons were based on discipline which needs to be followed during this global pandemic. Sai Praneeth shared a video on Twitter, in which PM can be heard saying that the words and suggestions by the players will be taken into account while dealing with this situation.

Its a great interaction with our honourable Prime Minister @narendramodi sir and @KirenRijiju sir.. Thank you for your valuable speech 🙏🙏… it is really a great motivation for all the athletes … we all are with you in fighting this situation .#stayhomestaysafe pic.twitter.com/lsrkaaBZob

— Sai Praneeth (@saiprneeth92) April 3, 2020