Real Life Stories

Anjan Bhattacharya

Despite being deaf and dumb, Anjan Bhattacharya earned a good name and fame in cricket. He was born on October 15, 1951 , in West Bengal . When he did not speak or respond to sound his family members were very disappointed.

Anjan was otherwise a normal child. He had a good physique and was very active. He started playing cricket at an early age. In school, he was popular due to his sports performance. The fact that Anjan was neither able to talk nor hear did not affect his performance and due to his extraordinarily fast bowling he was selected for the school cricket team. Very soon he was selected to the state team of schoolchildren. He displayed excellent performance in the matches one after another. He also played in the Koch Bihar Trophy tournament.

At the early age 13, he was selected in the school team of the East Zone. Teenager Anjan was a cheerful child. When an unknown admirer asked questions after seeing his performance, then he would simply smile. Despite being deaf and dumb, he was able to establish an unspoken communication with the captain of the team and other players. At the age of fifteen Anjan was selected in the national team of schoolboys. In 1966, he played two test matches with the school team of London .

Anjan joined the famous Mohan Bagan Club of Calcutta . The club was proud of having a disabled player. In 1969 he went to Lucknow to participate in the Sir Frank Warrel Cricket Tournament. The 18-year-old Anjan bowled out the outstanding batsmen with his pace bowling.

Anjan was so popular, that not only his teammates and club members, but even the members of the opposite team admired him.

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A batsman from Orissa, Chinmaya Jean, described his experience in a match for the Kooch Bihar Trophy. He said that when he was playing a match between the Bengal School Even and the Orissa School Eleven at the Eden Garden , he found it difficult to face Anjan's bowling. When he tried to play forward and hit his base, he was declared LBW Chinmaya Jean was totally puzzled. On the one hand, he was not satisfied and on the other, he was surprised to see that Anjan's short height and heavy body, was able to bowl so fast. Chinmaya tried to talk to Anjan but he simply smiled and did not respond. This puzzled Chinmaya even more. Later, he got to know from the captain of the Bengal team that Anjan was also deaf and dumb.

Anjan also impressed the renowned test crickets of that period. Famous batsman of that period, Dilip Sardesai saw his performance in a final match for the Modi Trophy at Jamshedpur in which Anjan was bowling against the Roongta Eleven. He declared Anjan the fastest bowler of India of that time.

Anjan was also suitably rewarded for his hard work and dedication to the game. Seeing his performance he was appointed in the Tata Iron and Steel Company. At a young age, Anjan started working at the Tata Colliery at Dhanbad. At the age of 19, he was selected in the Bihar team for the Ranji Trophy. He continued plying for Bihar up to 1973. In his first debut from Bihar, he took seven wickets giving away only 24 runs in the Ranji Trophy match against West Bengal . The cricket lovers were very surprised to see that with the performance of a disabled player, Bihar's team was able to defeat the mighty West Bengal team for the first time.

The Captain of the Bihar team, Daljeet Singh, expressed great pleasure and commented that Anjan's bowling was very sharp. His bowling was not only fast but also bounced extraordinarily which made it difficult for the batsman to play. Daljeet Singh was once himself badly injured while playing in a Mairti Club match. Anjan bowled with such speed that a Kara (steel bangle) on Daljeet's wrist pierced his bone when the ball hit him.

Anjan saw various heights in his Ranji Trophy career. During 1970-74, he took 111 wickets in 784.2 overs. Of these overs, 187 were maidens. He was an extraordinary miser in giving away runs and made the life of the batsman extremely difficult. To take 111 wickets, he gave away only 1920 runs and his average was 17.30 runs per wicket which put his in the 18 th position as far as the average of bowlers is concerned. Up to 1986, only 17 bowlers (100 wickets in Ranji Trophy) were ahead of Anjan, including Lal Singh (Av.15.56), Duttu Fudkar (Av. 16.67) etc.

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Seeing his game, the famous cricketer Lala Amarnath declared him the fastest bowler of India.

Very often Anjan created havoc among the batsman of the opponent team and set them back to the pavilion with a very low score. In 1971, Anjan took seven wickets in an inning, giving away only ten runs in a Ranji Trophy match. In this match, the Assam team was not able to play at all. Similarly, he again moved down the Assam team in 1974 in Ranji trophy match. This time he was playing for West Bengal and he took 7 wickets for just seven runs. Only Rajendra Goel of Haryana, who took seven wickets in an inning by giving away only four runs while playing against Jammu & Kashmir and Bishen Singh Bedi of Delhi who took seven wickets off Jammu & Kashmir team in an inning, giving only five runs, performed better than Anjan Bhattacharya.

Although Anjan was a bowler, he also batted reasonably well. He was included in a team of the East Zone for the Dileep Trophy. He was considered a good all-rounder.

Anjan Bhattacharya also represented India in ‘Deaf and Dumb' cricket and here he crossed several milestones. In 1978 the Australian cricket team of ‘deaf and dumb' players came to India and played five test matches. Anjan lead the India team. Under his captaincy the Indian team was able to draw the Test series in spite of the fact that the

Australian team was quite strong. Anjan continued his performance and in 1981, the National Tournament of Deaf and Dumb cricketers was organized in Karnal. Anjan impressed everybody as the best all-rounder and he was given the General Cariappa Rolling Shield.

Every sportsman desires to get the highest honor of the nation that is the Arjun Award in his life. It is given for outstanding performance throughout one's sports career. Anjan Bhattachaya was the first disabled sportsman to have received this prestigious award at the early age of 23 years. Disabled persons all over India felt proud when Anjan Bhattacharya received the Anjan Award, after competing with healthy sportsmen.

Anjan Bhattacharya is an amazing human being as well. Despite his disability, he never tried to get help from others but always tried to help others. He communicated with others by sign language and his friends feel that he has a lot to say.

Today not may people know Anjan Bhattacharya because the cricketers of that time did not appear in advertisements. However, Anjan is still a source of inspiration for disabled persons.

Source: Vinod Kumar Mishra, Eminent Disabled People of the World, Bookwise (India) Pvt Ltd

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