The BCCI has decided not to use Dharamveer Pal, the widely-recognised polio-afflicted fan of the Indian cricket team, as a ball-boy near the boundary line during matches anymore. The cricket has also informed all cricket associations across the country to not put anyone specially abled at the boundary.
The move was taken after Indian cricket board was criticised online for using the services of a polio-afflicted person, reports The Indian Express.
Dharamveer is well known to many Indian players. During his farewell Test match in Mumbai in 2013, Sachin Tendulkar took time out to meet with Dharamveer and Sudhir Kumar Gautam, the fan who paints his body in the colours of the Indian flag, and told them to keep supporting cricket, adds the report.
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In the wake of this, as Dharamveer reached the Wankhede Stadium to collect his accreditation, he was disappointed upon hearing this ultimatum by the BCCI.
“I went to MCA and I was told that I won’t get the pass. I got a ticket from an Indian player. Mujhe match dekhne se matlab hai. (I just want to watch the match), be it from the boundary rope or from the stands. I tried to ask MCA why they are not issuing a pass and I was told that there is some new BCCI rule. I have no complaint — whatever name I have earned in India is because of cricket. I have been cheering the Indian team for years now and will continue to do so,” he told the newspaper.
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According to Forbes, Dharamveer was born to a family of farmers in a village in the Morena district of Madhya Pradesh. His family was so poor that growing up he could not afford a wheel chair. Obsessed with cricket since he was a boy, he was 11 years old back in 2004, when he decided to take his dream of watching a cricket match live at a stadium, into his own hands. India was to play Sri Lanka in Mohali, Punjab, and Dharamveer was determined to be there.
Over the years, Dharamveer has garnered the regular financial support and social recognition he has come to earn as one of Indian cricket’s most dedicated fans.
