Quick Info→
Height: 5′ 10″
Hometown: Guntur
Age: 33 Years
Some Lesser Known Facts About Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy
- Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy is an Indian blind cricketer, authorities financial institution worker, and motivational speaker. He has served because the captain of the Indian blind group and led them to change into the winners of many Blind Cricket World Cups and Blind T20 World Cups. He was awarded the 2023 Arjuna Award for his contribution to the para cricket.
- A latch of a door went inside his eyes when he was 4 which left him blind in his left eye and imaginative and prescient loss in his proper eye as nicely. He studied at a daily college until sixth commonplace; nonetheless, when he turned twelve, he began having problem in studying from his proper eye as nicely after his trainer suggested his mother and father to shift him to a blind college.
- In 2002, he began learning at Lutheran High School for the Blind, Narasaraopeta the place he discovered about blind cricket. He later got here to know that Pakistan defeated India in a blind World Cup which made him offended.
- Although he needed to serve within the Indian Army as a soldier, he determined to change into a blind cricketer to serve the nation as he was unfit for the Army attributable to his imaginative and prescient incapacity.
- In 2006, his good friend G Nageshwar Rao took him to Hyderabad to take part within the state-level trials for the Andhra Pradesh blind cricket group the place he was chosen for the state group. Ajay feared that his mother and father wouldn’t enable him to go to the trials, therefore he lied to them that he was going to a good friend’s dwelling for research.
- Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy later began dwelling at a hostel, and his mother and father opened an idli-dosa stall to earn cash for his coaching. Ajay began to really feel that his mother and father have been abandoning him after which he got here again and began working at his dad or mum’s stall. He began cleansing dishes and serving tea or meals to prospects. Due to his lack of correct imaginative and prescient, he was additionally abused just a few occasions.
- He later turned a member of the Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, an NGO for the disabled, which supplied help to him to change into an expert cricketer.
- His debut ODI sequence was in opposition to England in 2010, and in 2012, he was a member of the Indian blind group which gained the Blind T20 World Cup underneath the captaincy of Shekhar Naik. He later performed within the 2014 Blind Cricket World Cup underneath Naik and helped the group to emerge because the match winners.
- In 2016, Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy turned the captain of the blind group and captained them to clinch the inaugural version of the Blind T20 Asia Cup in the identical yr. In the 2017 Blind T20 World Cup, he helped India change into the match winners by taking 9 wickets within the competitors.
- Under his management, the Indian blind group gained the 2018 Blind Cricket World Cup (40 over) and achieved a hattrick of T20 World Cups by profitable the 2022 Blind T20 World Cup. He led the group to a silver medal win on the 2023 International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Games 2023 held at Edgbaston, Birmingham.
- In his cricket profession of greater than a decade, he has gained greater than 80 Man of the Match awards and over 50 Man of the Series Awards. Droupadi Murmu, the fifteenth President of India, awarded him with the Arjuna Award on 9 January 2024.
- Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy joined the State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH) as a clerk after finishing his formal research. SBH merged with the State Bank of India (SBI) in 2017. He was promoted to the submit of Deputy Manager in May 2020.
- As of January 2024, Ajay performs within the B2 (clear imaginative and prescient until 6 meters) class; nonetheless, he revealed in an interview that he was slowly dropping imaginative and prescient in his proper eye as nicely, and he may need to change to B1 (virtually blind) class if he was unable to discover a good physician.
- In an interview, he stated that individuals sympathise with the blind cricketers as a substitute of recognition which must be given to them as they’ve gained a number of World Cups. He additionally highlighted that correct financial help must be given to them as many of the blind cricketers battle economically.
- Illuri Ajay Kumar Reddy provides motivational speeches at varied colleges and schools and tries to encourage disabled individuals to do one thing for the nation and the frequent public.
- In an interview, he talked concerning the struggles of his mother and father and known as them his greatest help system. He stated that his father additionally had a imaginative and prescient downside and didn’t earn sufficient cash; nonetheless, his father and mom all the time gave him the issues he wanted to play cricket. He additionally thanked his college principal who gave him attendance as he couldn’t attend courses attributable to cricket tournaments.