The leading national daily had devoted three full pages to sports. The leading headline of the first of these three pages read: ‘Ashwin, Pujara take India close to win’. The second page lead headline was: ‘Chelsea fail to extend Advantage’. The third page had the following lead headline: ‘Mitchell Starc hopes to swing with SG ball in India’. The second item on the third page was: ‘India thump Pakistan to clinch Blind World Cup’. The occasion was that the Indian blind cricket team had successfully defended its Twenty20 World Cup title in Bengaluru defeating Pakistan in the second successive edition. What is creditable is that at least this national daily had prominently displayed the news item, albeit on the third page of its sports section. Quite a few newspapers had just about mentioned the victory. Some had, in fact, not even taken the trouble to record this second successive win of the blind persons Indian cricket team. The feat of the team was as good as that of any other team representing the country. But why had they failed to find a mention secondary to even Chelsea playing in some far-off land? Probably because media coverage attracts eyeballs. Media coverage of the Indian Test team or Chelsea or Starc was going to be humongous and would net millions of rupees.
What had me wondering was: whether the effort and commitment of the visually-impaired persons was any less in attaining world supremacy in that edition of the game? It certainly was not.
We need to introspect on the effort and commitment of these superb variety of human beings. They have never seen a stadium. Never seen a cricket ball or bat. They have never seen a map which would depict India and Pakistan. In fact they have never seen human beings! What are they playing for and how do they visualise their achievement? In fact they would probably not even know that a photo of theirs has appeared on anything known as a newspaper. Nevertheless, setting aside all these visual capabilities or pleasures, they play the game with the same mental and physical agility as any normal cricketer would do.
I write not to bemoan the fact that they did not get media coverage. That issue is purely peripheral. I write as I am simply amazed at the supreme capability of these persons to be playing a game which is only in their minds. They have to visualise a ball, a batsman and a pitch and then hone their skills to chuck a straight ball—straight to where? It is mind-boggling—the kind of honing of skills they must be doing in their minds to achieve this superb feat. The batsman then hits the ball and the fielder takes a catch! How does he know that it is coming to his right, left or may even be straight at his face? Only by the rattling noise the ball makes. It is indeed a supreme effort and deserves far greater recognition than mere media attention of a second headline on the third sports page. As a nation, we need to applaud the absolutely superlative performance of these cricketers. Their commitment to the game, marshalling their superhuman capabilities towards overcoming personal physical disabilities and excelling in a game which is often a trial for men with great physical ability, is a feat which has few parallels.
These people are really the superheroes. They are supermen. The nation needs to stand up and salute them. In every respect they deserve credit far beyond what appears to have come their way. Well done, folks. You are the pride of the nation.
