Blind commentator ‘on the ball’

Dean du Plessis relies on listening to the crack of the ball, the crowd and the stump microphones to help him do his job as an international cricket commentator.

He gauges the field action with his ears: a bowler's grunt as he hurls forward, the drag of feet along the pitch, or the crack of a bat slamming into a ball.

The Zimbabwean is one of the world's few sightless sports analysts, plying his remarkable expertise by training his acute hearing on the stump microphones despite being born with a blindness that was meant to kill him.

“I was born with tumours on both my retinas, so I was only meant to be alive for three to maximum five months - but I'm 35, not out now, so still playing a good innings,” he said.

Alongside daily radio work, sports bulletins and a newspaper column which he writes on his voice-enabled cell phone, Du Plessis also sits in the broadcasters' commentary booth where he provides colour to the anchor's match breakdown.

“Robin Jackman will say something like ‘driven through the covers, that will be four, good shot',” he explained, smoothly gearing into cricket jargon with radio-esque poise.

“And then it will be my job to say 'well, that is arguably Jacques Kallis' most favourite shot, outside the off stump, a little bit of width, which allowed him to free his arms’.”

Du Plessis says he gets no preferential treatment but is wholly dependent on the stump microphones which identify each player's unique characteristics.

These range from England Test skipper Andrew Strauss's “yeah, come on, come on, come on” when wanting to make a run for it, to former Australian spinner Shane Warne's huge grunt, and South African Graeme Smith on a hook or pull shot.

“If I turn my microphones down, I really will be blind,” he said.

“Obviously having followed the game for just over 20 years and having commentated for 10 going on 11 years, you get to understand, and you get to know which player does what and that's pretty much how I know what's going on out there.”

It was the stupendous noise of 80 000 roaring Indian fans in a radio broadcast more than 20 years ago that piqued his interest in the sport while at a boarding school for the blind in South Africa, where he would later drum up mock match reports.

click to enlarge VISIONARY: Dean du Plessis leads a colourful life as a commentator, despite being blind © NAMPA/AFP