Cricketer of year title goes to real hero of the pitch
THE future looks bright for South Africa’s blind cricketer of the year, Desigan Pillay, who was honoured at the Cricket South Africa awards ceremony on Wednesday.
Pillay could not believe his luck as he rubbed shoulders with “my heroes” at this year’s Sandton Convention Centre gala evening.
Little did he realise he was the real hero.
Pillay, 29, is partially sighted, a condition he was diagnosed with as a toddler.
“I really didn’t expect the award — I think I was at my peak in 2005. I did perform well in the blind cricket tournament in Cape Town in April, but nothing prepared me for this,” he said.
Pillay is the sports coordinator at West Ridge High School in Mayville, Durban, and holds a sports science degree and higher education diploma from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and Edgewood College.
He was introduced to the sport in 1998.
“I was in Grade 8 at Arthur Blaxall School for the Blind and we had the Northern Pretoria blind cricketers playing at our school. I used to be an avid swimmer, but this team gave me hope to play cricket,” said Pillay.
Since then, he has excelled in the sport and plays for the KwaZulu-Natal Association of Blind Cricket and the South African Blind Cricket team.
He said the 11 members of the SA team were divided as follows: four are totally blind, three partially blind and four partially sighted.
“We play the game with a hard plastic cricket ball with bells in it — almost like a baby’s rattle. Our technique is using an underarm movement to roll the ball on the field and the pitch. The players rely on their sense of hearing to play the sport.”
Pillay said he would like to encourage young people to play and for local blind cricket to be allowed to play professionally and get proper funding.
Also this week, Hashim Amla was appointed the Protea’s test captain, taking over from Graeme Smith, who retired in March.
Sports commentator Kass Naidoo said AB de Villiers was the frontrunner for the job, but Amla “changed the game” when he made himself available.
“Hashim has walked a long, hard journey at national level since his controversial debut in 2004, when his technique was pulled apart and he was branded a quota player.
“Ten years later, he has more than proved himself,” said Naidoo.