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GOING NATIVE

Goodness from Guyana

PHOTO: ANU PUSHKARNA

The perfect strike Geoffrey, known to his friends as Jeff, poses with bats signed by well-known cricketers endorsing different causes

Geoffrey Lepps mixes his passion with charity. In India for the last 30 years, the Guyanese has been involved in getting cricketers from India and the world to espouse causes for UNICEF — such as polio, AIDS awareness and education. “Actu ally the goodwill comes from the players themselves. Most of them come from humble backgrounds and it gives them an opportunity to give back. Indian cricketers love being ambassadors for India supporting various causes,” says Lepp, who co-ordinated the AIDS awareness programme conducted during the Champions League Twenty20 semi-finals in Hyderabad.

Having married an Indian in London, he came to India in 1975 for good. The diehard cricket fan says it was the humanitarian work done by Mother Teresa which showed him the way. “I would like to see the underprivileged come up. And I realised that cricketers can make a strong impact and thus help bring about the change. Sachin Tendulkar is the UNICEF ambassador for hand washing. Anil Kumble has given polio drops to children himself. And now UNICEF has done TV spots with Virendra Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Murali Karthik and Amitabh Bachchan highlighting the issue and asking people to give their children polio drops on November 8, which is a polio drive day,” he says.

One of the early activities he undertook involving the cricketers was during the 1987 World Cup. “Again players like Martin Crowe, Kapil Dev, Allan Border, Vivian Richards Javed Miandad, Arjuna Ranatunga were filmed raising awareness for the six killer diseases prevalent in India during that time, like tuberculosis, whooping cough, diphtheria, etc,” recalls Lepps. So far so good. Actually, it has been excellent for Lepps — so much so that he doesn’t want to go back.

“My wife thought we would have a better life in India and she has been proven right. I don’t see myself going back ever. In 2006, I went to Trinidad for the first time in all these years,” says Lepps, whose entire family is based in Delhi.

While his elder son Anil Lepps is the CEO of Indiabulls and is married to fashion designer Monisha Bajaj, his younger son, Rohan, is with Bharti Wal-Mart.

Coming to India was like an awakening for him in many aspects.

“I came over with a Christian bent of mind but my eyes opened to so many religions. The most wonderful experience of my life was visiting Ayodhya last year. I had a different notion of Ayodhya because of the events that took place, but I felt spiritually very different there,” concludes Lepps.

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