Two local heroes of the Warwickshire County Cricket Club and Edgbaston family were recognised for their outstanding efforts during the lockdown period at the Vitality Blast fixture between the Bears and Gloucestershire.
Mohammed Banaris, who leads stewarding operations at Edgbaston as G4S Operations Manager, and Dr Nasir Ali, who works as the venue’s Major Match Doctor and is an Accident and Emergency Consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, were both named as heroes of the game by the ECB ahead of the opening men’s Test of England’s #raisethebat Test with West Indies.
Last night they were presented with England training shirts, which displayed their names and were worn on the field at the Ageas Bowl by Warwickshire’s Dom Sibley and Olly Robinson of Sussex.
The work of Mohammed was celebrated for establishing a team of staff and managing the drive through COVID testing centre, which operated on the car park at Edgbaston over 21 weeks between April and August. The facility became a model for others across the country and during the peak of the pandemic it conducted thousands of tests each week.
Dr Nasir is a well-known figure at Edgbaston and saved the life of at least one seriously ill spectator during last summer’s Ashes Test match.
He operated on the frontline at Queen Elizabeth Hospital during the crisis and, after personally being affected by COVID during the early stages of pandemic, he recovered and made a prompt return to work to support the local response.
Everyone at Edgbaston expresses thanks to both Mohammed and Nasir and congratulates them on their fantastic efforts during the lockdown period.
