In times of no cricket, spinner Shahbaz Nadeem is facing the test of his life. And that has nothing to do with the game that he has played all his life.

Jharkhand’s Nadeem, who would have been busy with his IPL commitments for Sunrisers Hyderabad had there been no coronavirus outbreak, is struggling to arrange proper treatment for wife Saman, who suffers from liver-related issues.

“She has fatty liver, which has been causing problems for the last three-four months. The treatment had already begun in Calcutta, and she has been asked to undergo further tests. But we are stuck here (in Dhanbad).

“She needs to undergo the MRI PDFF test, the machine for which is available only in one of the (private) hospitals in Calcutta. It’s not possible to do that test here in Dhanbad,” the left-arm Jharkhand spinner, who made his Test debut last year in Ranchi versus South Africa, told The Telegraph on Sunday.

What worries Nadeem more is that the condition of his wife is worsening with nausea and other issues. “Nausea and other problems are there, but she is getting weaker and that is what’s concerning us more,” he said.

“We were supposed to return to Calcutta on March 24, but then the lockdown began and got extended as well,” the 30-year-old, who has played CAB club cricket for quite some time and has a home in Ekbalpore, said.

He still did make an attempt to return by car on April 15 after getting the necessary permit from the Dhanbad district authority, but was stopped at the Jharkhand-Bengal border and then asked to go back as inter-state travel is barred at this point in time.

“I told the Dhanbad district authority of the trouble we were facing and got the permission to leave for Calcutta. But authorities at the border didn’t allow us to proceed.

“They claimed it wasn’t an emergency case. My point is, if someone has liver-related problems and the matter gets aggravated, is it still not an emergency? She is feeling weak now, which wasn’t the case earlier.

“The authorities said I needed to obtain a special report on this matter from the concerned hospital in Calcutta. But how will I get it unless I’m able to visit the hospital?

“I showed them the documents and papers, yet they didn’t allow us. Waiting there for two or two-and-a-half hours, we had to come back to Dhanbad,” Nadeem narrated.

Nadeem is thinking of apprising BCCI president Sourav Ganguly of the circumstances.

“Being a professional cricketer, I have to carry on training. I’ve got my set of weights with which I am exercising and also doing band workouts with a bit of running.”