Stranded after his flight was cancelled thrice due to the Covid-19 pandemic, former New Zealand pacer Iain O’Brien couldn’t hold back tears after mustering enough money via crowd-funding to book his way back home.

The 43-year-old from Wellington, who now lives in the UK, was in New Zealand to deal with his mental health issues but his month-long trip was disrupted after countries went into a lockdown mode and borders were closed to control coronavirus.

After three of his flights were cancelled, O’Brien decided to seek donations to arrange the money for his ticket. On Friday morning, he woke up to find that his target of £2250 was well surpassed and he now had £3660 in the coffers, more than enough to cover his travel cost.

“I woke up this morning and maybe for the third or fourth time in my life I cried before I got out of bed,” he said in a tearful video message to the people who had contributed towards his return journey.