People Once Mocked This Para Cricketer's Passion For Sport, Now Part Of Indian Cricket Team

Brajesh Dwivedi is a para cricketer from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, who made his debut in the Indian Cricket Team for Physically Challenged in 2017. He was diagnosed with polio at the age of 18 months, but this condition never stood in the way of his passion for the sport.

Since his debut, the all-arounder has participated in multiple international tournaments for the Indian team. Most recently, he took part in the Bangabandhu Physically Challenged Tournament, which took place in Bangladesh from March 27 to March 31 this year, wherein India claimed second place.

'People Responded To My Passion With Either Sympathy Or Mockery'

In a conversation with The Logical Indian, Dwivedi stated, "I've been playing cricket since I was six years old, but up until I was 17, I played with athletes who were fully physically abled. Due to the fact that Divyang Cricket was not well-known in the nation at the time, I was completely unaware of its existence. I heard about the cricket state team for physically challenged individuals during a school game, and in 1999 I switched to Divyang Cricket."

While addressing his difficulties about playing cricket in the country as a physically challenged person, the athlete expressed, "Even after representing the country, most people responded to my passion for the sport either with sympathy or mockery, but it had no influence on my game."

The para cricketer continued by saying that if a player is genuinely willing to compete and represent his country with pride, he won't complain about any loopholes in the system.

Aims To Inspire & Motivate Fellow Physically Challenged

Dwivedi established his own cricket academy in 2002, running until 2008. The academy produced several outstanding athletes who went on to compete at the nationals, university-state, school-state, etc., but he aims to open an academy solely for disabled athletes and has been working on his vision for many years.

When questioned about the state of para cricket in the nation, the athlete said, "I feel that right now para cricket is where general cricket was in the 1990s. People have just begun to watch para cricket. At first, they did so out of curiosity about how someone without an arm or a leg could play cricket, but they later watched it for motivation."

The para cricketer added, "The purpose of sharing my ideas and my story is to inspire and motivate my fellow disabled brothers and sisters athletes so that they can come up and make our country proud too."

Brajesh Dwivedi has been honored with many awards, which include the "Madhya Pradesh Khel Ratna" in 2019, "India's Shining Star" in 2019, "India Star Passion" in 2019, and "Divyang Ratna 2018". Further, he was nominated as "Brand Ambassador" for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of Satna City.

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