He lost his hand at 6. At 32, he helped other disabled athletes watch their first IPL game. | Cricket News

Twenty-six years later, Mahesh was at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, watching an IPL game from the ground floor, an HCA volunteer beside him, transportation arranged and paid for. He had not bought a ticket. He had helped distribute them.

The Hyderabad Cricket Association this IPL season has been offering 30 complimentary passes per home game to physically disabled individuals, with a focus on athletes. “It is not about doing charity,” said HCA secretary Manne Jeevan Reddy. “It is about fulfilling our responsibility as a person. People with physical disability do not need or seek special attention or sympathy. They deserve an equal opportunity to watch the match.”

The scheme’s first game — an afternoon fixture against Lucknow Super Giants — drew only three takers. Awareness was low, Reddy acknowledged, and the application process, which required submitting an Aadhaar card, phone number and disability certificate through the HCA website, had not reached the people it was designed for.

Reddy reached out to journalists and NGOs. One contact led to Mahesh.

This is Mahesh Dheeravath with other physically challenged people at the game against Chennai Super kings (Image via Special Arrangement)

After his amputation, Mahesh had returned to school, taken to cricket, and made a quiet promise to himself. Watching Sachin Tendulkar on television had given it shape. “He inspired me, and I too wanted to come on television. We are physically not fit, but mentally we are sound,” he said. “It’s not that I don’t feel devastated at times, but I concentrate on what I have rather than what I don’t.”

He played through school, making it to the Mandal level. When he reached the district level, the system stopped him plainly: there was no quota for disabled players. He kept playing where he could, in intra-school matches, Independence Day and Republic Day events, whatever competition presented itself. The door at the district level stayed shut.

It opened elsewhere. In 2013, the late Arjun awardee Madhasu Srinivas Rao, then president of the Para Sports Association of Telangana, introduced him to para-sport. Mahesh went on to represent India in cricket and volleyball, competing across 17 countries and winning 14 medals, including a silver at the 2019 beach volleyball tournament in China. He now has his eye on the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics.

When the call came about the HCA passes, he didn’t hesitate. Working through PSAT contacts and local NGOs, he helped fill all 27 slots for the game against Rajasthan Royals, and arranged distribution for the subsequent Chennai Super Kings fixture too.

For Gone Chintu Reddy, who plays throwball and has limited use of his right hand due to polio, it was his first IPL game. “It is the first time for all of us to watch such a big match. The first time seeing players from such a close distance,” he said.

Chintu had been to the stadium before, but never for a game. Others in the group had never been at all. “I have seen Ishan Kishan. They came to practise in front of all of us. We observed how they train and what we can incorporate in our own methods.”