Yohan Blake to Promote Road Safety in India

Mumbai, Nov 15 (PTI) World and Olympic 100m and 200m champion sprinter Yohan Blake will be in India to promote the Road Safety World Series -- a T20 cricket event to be held in February next year.

Blake, a favourite to win gold in 100m and 200m events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, will arrive in India during the first week of December.

The 29-year-old Jamaican will undertake various activities to create awareness towards road safety in the country where around 1,50,000 people are killed and more than 4,50,000 people are critically injured in road accidents every year.

He will promote the Road Safety World Series which will be played between legends of India, Australia, South Africa, West Indies and Sri Lanka. In the first edition, the series will be played in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Pune.

Blake was shocked when he heard that one person dies every four minutes in India and out of every hundred people dying in the world, 30 are Indians.

"I have heard a lot about India and I always wanted to visit this wonderful country. I should thank the Road Safety World Series team for making this happen," Blake said.

"I am aware about the number of deaths due to road accidents in India, I am also aware of cricket's popularity in the country and how the fans idolise cricketers here.

"I am sure that the organizers will be able to achieve what they intend to through this series. Now that I am associated with this cause, I will do my best to spread the word, not only in India, but across the globe as road safety is a serious concern worldwide."

Talking about the Road Safety World Series, Blake said: "The Road Safety World Series is such a wonderful initiative — integrating sports with a noble cause to save human lives. I was blown away the moment I heard about it! Hats off to the organizers for coming up with such a concept.

"I am happy to be associated with this cause, because, it also gives me an opportunity to give something back to the society."

The Road Safety World Series will feature Tendulkar and West Indies legend Brian Lara along with a host of other legendary cricketers like Brett Lee, Virender Sehwag and Muthiah Muralitharan.

Tendulkar is also the Brand Ambassador of the series whereas Sunil Gavaskar is the Commissioner of the series.

Blake, who is also the Road Safety Champion for the West Indies Legends team, also said that he is a big fan of cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar.

"Not many might know, but I also like cricket and I am a big fan of Sachin Tendulkar. I will make sure that I get to meet him and take his autograph during my stay," he said. PTI

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