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deficient sports personalities from various other countries. Foot-notes have been incorporated wherever necessary to give the exact details of particular events and their special features. For this, great effort had to be made to gather authentic information from various places and sources.
Significant contribution has been made in raising the morale and stirring the conscience of the Gujaratis by the renowned saint Poojya Shri Mota and also by the well known cricketer and humanitarian Shri Vijay Merchant who was the spirit behind the sports events that are annually organised for them in the country. I was fortunate enough in obtaining from them a foreword and a preamble for this book. I am very thankful to Shri Anandjibhai Dossa, for his comments on the book.
Gujarat still lags behind when compared to other states in the sphere of games and sports. Also, there are very few books written in Gujarati on that subject. In foreign countries, books on games and sports written with special style and flavour find a place in the realm of literature and are very popular. I am glad that this book – the first of its kind and written with a view to inspiring has been well received in various quarters. The first edition was published in 1973 and reprints followed in 1976 and 1985. A few schools imparting education especially to the physically challenged have incorporated it as a text-book in their curriculum. Its Hindi translation was serialised in the periodical'Anuvrat'. It was awarded a prize in the category of outstanding literary works written in Gujarati. The writer received an award at the hands of the then Governor of Gujarat Shri K. K. Vishwanathan, which was instituted by the lions club for writing such an excellent book. What is more significant and noteworthy in all this is the fact that the book has been brought out in the Braille script also so
