Indian offers kidney to watch World Cup
2007-03-14 05:12:18
RANCHI, India, A 23-year-old Indian businessman Tuesday said he would sell one of his kidneys to anyone who needed a transplant in order to afford travel to the cricket World Cup in the Caribbean. Tarun Sharma even repeated threats made to several national newspapers to kill himself if he did not find takers for one of his two kidneys as the World Cup got underway in the Caribbean on Sunday. "If no arrangement is made then I will jump in the river to end my life," Sharma told AFP by phone from his home in eastern Jamshedpur city. Kidney donations are allowed only between relatives in India, but there have been repeated incidents of people selling their kidneys to earn money. "These laws only prevent people from chasing their dreams," Sharma said. "I am sure that India will win the World Cup. What can be more satisfying for a fan (than) to see his country win the World Cup?" Police said they were keeping a watch on the man to make sure he did not kill himself. Sharma earns around 3,000 rupees (68 dollars) a month. Travel agents said that an eight-night tour to the Caribbean was available for 250,000 rupees. The cost is exorbitant for many in India, where annual income is around 800 dollars. India, the 1983 World Cup winner, is in Group B with 1996 champion Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bermuda — providing a strong subcontinental flavor to the pool from which two teams will advance to the Super 8s. Runner-up to Australia in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, India will play all its three preliminary round games in Port-of-Spain, which has been India's favorite Caribbean venue since the maiden success against the West Indies in a 1971 test match. Just one decisive match in the 1971 series gave India its first Test series triumph against the West Indies. Since then, India has won three more test matches in the West Indies, and two of them were at the same Queen's Park Oval. The Queen's Park Oval has also been the venue of India's lone limited-overs series triumph in the West Indies in 2002. A sizable presence of people of Indian origin living in Trinidad has always ensured good support for India's cricketers, who have also found the pitches at this venue responding to its spin bowlers. Source : AFP