By Riddhi Arora

The day was 7 April 1986 when a boy Shekar Naik was born in a small village in Karnataka. For about eight years ( 1986 – 1994) the child suffered from complete blindness. This blindness was transferred genetically as his parents and grandparents were also blind. In 1994 suddenly he fell into a canal, then he was taken to Bangalore and was operated there. The operation was successful and, his right eye got 60% of vision. However, nothing could be done for his left eye. But soon he lost his father. He was admitted to the blind school at the age of 11. That was the time when he started playing cricket. He played for the state level from his school as a wicketkeeper. At the age of 12, he lost his mother now no one was there to take care of him. He remembers what his mother used to say. She told him that she had placed him in a school and had done her duty. Now, it was his responsibility to find a way to live life. Life was challenging for him as it shall remain the same forever. But he accepted the challenge of life and left himself with no option but to win and make his parents proud. He was so devoted to cricket that If he had to go for a tournament, he always used to count the no. of hours, minutes, and days that were left for the tournament. Cricket used to occupy his thoughts all the time. In the year 2000, there was a tournament in Mandya, wherein he scored 136 runs in 46 balls. It started boosted up his confidence. Then he got selected for the Karnataka team( South Zone), as the opening batsman. In 2000 there was a match in Belgaum in which Karnataka and Kerala teams battled in the finals. That was the first time when he played in a stadium. He scored 249 runs in a one-day match. In 2006 he was the only person from the Karnataka team, who got selected to play for the Indian team. The very same year he was bestowed with the "Best Batsman", "Man of the series" and three "Man of the match" awards. Later in 2007 in England, he won the "Man of the match" award twice. In 2010, he was chosen as the captain of the Indian Cricket team for Blind.

As it is rightly said hard work always pays. With half vision, he became the Captain for the Indian Cricket Team for the blind. He doesn’t concentrate on what he lacks but focused on what he can achieve. It was a tough job for him, obstacles were there at every point, not having sight and still playing was a huge thing but he didn’t look back and, he proved that HE CAN!