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Cricketers with a difference
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The old adage `If there is a will there is a way', stands in good stead for these differently-abled cricketers
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PHOTO: K.R.DEEPAK
PLAYING TO WIN members of the disabled team also dream to represent the country at the international level
Straight down the 22-yard track he looks like an accomplished cricketer in whites. His poise, stance and balance make him look like a copybook cricketer in batting gear. When he launches on a cover drive or a short-arm pull they are well timed and power-packed. Move down to the square of the wicket on any side and one would find something missing. The batsman would be found standing on one leg. Meet Eswarapu Vasu, the 25-year-old cricketer whose right leg was crushed under the wheels of a lorry a day before the Vinayaka Chavithi celebrations six years ago.
"We were going to bring the idol of the Lord when our van collided with a lorry. I lost my leg and my right hand was injured with multiple compound fractures," laments Vasu.
Hailing from a middle class family in Visakhapatnam, Vasu was passionate about the game since his childhood. Just at the time when he was shaping up well in club cricket to take to the higher levels of the game the tragic incident crushed his ambitions.
" I took me full one year to recuperate from the accident. And after a few moths I once again took to the field without informing my parents. It was my close friends who helped me at that time. They would literally carry me to the ground and help me balance on one leg."
After sweating it out for two to three hours daily for the last four years, today Vasu is in a position to decimate a good bowling attack. "He is our star batsman. We regard him as our Sachin," says his team member Ramesh from Jaggiahpeta. Ramesh, whose right hand is affected with 80 per cent polio, is the left arm fast bowler of the team. And he models himself after the Indian left armer, Zaheer Khan.
Be it Vasu, Ramesh, Mohan Rao, Rajiv Kumar, Shafi or Roshan Kumar they all have one thing in common, they are differently-abled and they claim to be the members of the State Disabled Cricket team sponsored by the Andhra Cricket Association for the Disabled.
The members of the disabled team also share a common dream. They all wish to represent the country at the international level. "I certainly wish to represent the country at the international level under the disabled category and I am working hard for it," says Vasu.
Vasu is desperate to take up any job as he realises that the time has come to take care of his aging parents and his cancer affected brother.
"For all tournaments, be it national or international, we have to raise our own funds. Even there is no initiative from the State, so the question of sports quota or any such recognition does not arise. We have to fight our own battle and that is the reason why we are planning to host a national championship at Hyderabad in October," informs C. Mohan Kumar Niadu, joint secretary of the association.
SUMEET BHATTACHARJEE
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