Former SL batter Mahanama serves Tea and Buns amidst fuel crisis

Amid the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, former cricketer Roshan Mahanama has urged his countrymen to look after each other during the difficult times as he himself was seen serving tea and buns to people waiting in long queues at the petrol station around Ward Place and Wijerama Mawatha regions of the island nation. The economic crisis has led to an acute shortage of essential items like food, medicine, cooking gas and other fuel, toilet paper and even matches.

The nation is struggling to find foreign exchange to pay for desperately needed fuel imports, and its existing stock of petrol and diesel is projected to run out in a matter of days. While the country is in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a bailout package, people are forced to wait in lines lasting hours outside stores to buy fuel and cooking gas.

"We served tea and buns with the team from Community Meal Share this evening for the people at the petrol queues around Ward Place and Wijerama mawatha. The queues are getting longer by the day and there will be many health risks to people staying in queues," Mahanama wrote on Twitter.

"Please, look after each other in the fuel queues. Bring adequate fluid and food and if you're not well please, reach out to the closest person next to you and ask for support or call 1990. We need to look after each other during these difficult times."

Sri Lanka is going through the worst economic crisis since its independence from Britain in 1948.

Out of fuel and struggling to contain a deepening economic crisis, Sri Lanka on Friday ordered government employees to work from home to reduce the rush on public transport.

A shortage of foreign cash reserves for essential imports has worsened Sri Lanka's crisis, which has been attributed to mismanagement by members of the powerful ruling Rajapaksa family. Among their catastrophic policies were tax cuts that shrunk revenue already hit by a drop in tourism income because of the pandemic, and a ban on chemical fertilizer to promote organic farming, which devastated farmers.