Brave Hearts

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Eye Care Foundation

Page 49

The Brave Hearts
Pataudi has scored 2792 runs in all in 46 tests and 83 innings with an average of 34 runs and had held 26 catches in his cricketing career. He will find a permanent place in the history of the game of cricket for his aggressive approach, constructive batting, stylish fielding and sound captaincy. More than that he would always be remembered as the one eyed magician' of the world of cricket.
Shailesh Navinbhai Chaudhry, a deaf and dumb youth of village Salaiya, Ta. Mandavi of District Surat, participated in Deaf Olympics of Australia in 2006 and earned a place in top-ten and was ranked tenth. The village from which he hails has an Adivasi population of barely 1500 people.
Enduring economic hardships, Shailesh Chaudhry studied up to std. 10 in a Deaf & Dumb school in a small place called Kachholi. Despite his handicaps, he excelled in different sports such as high jump, long jump and discus-throw and was equally at home playing volleyball and table tennis. He won two gold medals and two silver medals at the national level competition for the Deaf & the Dumb. An adivasi by birth, born deaf and dumb, Shailesh Chaudhry by sheer dint of hard work and determination, won laurels for the nation.