City boy selected for deaf cricket Asia cup

13.03.2017

Lucknow: Hearing impaired since birth, Lucknow boy Aman Rizvi could never hear the praises that followed every stroke of his bat. But the 19-year-old has managed to raise the bar of deaf cricket in the city once again as the only one from Lucknow to represent India at the third Deaf Cricket Asia Cup-2017 to be held in Hyderabad from March 13 to March 20.

Last year, when Rizvi represented India at the Deaf International Cricket Championship (DIFF) 2016 held in Dubai, he was declared 'Man of the Match' in the match against the South African team. This year, a probable team of 20 players was selected by All India Cricket Association for the Deaf (AICAD) out of the six teams that participated in the Usha Deaf IPL 2017 and Rizvi took part. Apart from him, Anubhav Gautam from Aligarh also made it to the team.

"He is the only one from Lucknow in the national team in an international championship and that makes us all proud but it is sad that state government, centre, sports ministry or BCCI supports have not supported the deaf and mute cricketers. The blind and specially-abled ones are given some support but the deaf get ignored completely," said Rizvi's father, Syed Imam Ali. The young cricketer is currently in Hyderabad attending a rigorous training camp for the team before he plays his first match of the cup on March 14.

Associated with the Uttar Pradesh Cricket Association of the Deaf (UPCAD) that was formed in 1920 and comprises 70 hearing impaired cricketers, Rizvi was amongst the four from Uttar Pradesh to have made it to the Indian deaf cricket team, last year. He was the only one of them to make it to the championship, while three other players could not afford the official fee. "We somehow managed to help him financially. Such children get disappointed very fast and it is difficult to make them understand, so government must step in and support them," said the father.