The blind cricketer

Lachma Shekhar Naik was born on 7 April 1986, in a nomadic Banjara Family in southern Karnataka, as the son of a farmer. He was born completely blind as his mother and other 15 members of his family suffered from visual impairment, Naik was seven when he injured his head after falling along the bank of the River he was taken to a health camp where the doctor released that the possibility of restoring sight his right eye, he was operated in Bangalore and was able to restore 60 % of his right eye vision.

He was sent to Shri Sharada Devi School for blind in Shimoga, he learned to play cricket while at school, he used to work in filed in summer holidays to save money for his cricket ambitions, his mother died when he was the age of 12, while he off from playing he used to work as sports coordinator for an NGO ‘Samarthanam’ which funds for the cricket Association for Blind people in India.
He was selected in Karnataka Team in 2000, he was called up to India national Blind Cricket Team in 2002, went to captain the team in 2010. He was the man of the match in the 2006 World cup, he also led the team to victory in the 2014 cricket world cup.
In 2017 he was honored by the country’s fourth highest Civilian honor Padma Shri by the Government of India.