MD. Jafar Iqbal

Mohammed Jafar Iqbal is from Orissa. He was born on a warm and sunny day on 22nd June 1988 in Bhubaneswar. As he grew up, started to speak, started to move around and play with other children in the neighbourhood, it was realised that his eyesight was waning rapidly and he was becoming blind. A typical case of blindness at birth. The doctors said it was irreversible because it had affected a sensitive nerve. The toddler Jaffar was declared to be blind. He has three brothers and three sisters. Among his sisters one of them was also born blind. What does she do now? She has taken a degree and has a diploma in Special Education. She works with special children. She is married and has two normal children. Jaffar was married in 2016. The family stays in Azadnagar these days. Cricket for the Blind came to Orissa in 1998. Jaffar was ten years old then. His school was the only Blind School playing cricket and Jaffar too started to play in the teamrd . It took a while to get recognition, and in 2003 he was selected for the Orissa team as an All Rounder. He was designated Captain of the State team in 2010. He says the team in 2010 was playing insipid cricket and losing matches had become a habit. After he took over as Captain, he brought in energy into the team. In 2011, they started winning matches in the East Zone tourneys. In 2015 Orissa was the runner-up in the Nationals, and in 2016 they won the National Champions Trophy for the first time in the history of Blind Cricket in Orissa. He was part of the 3rd T20 World Cup 2022 winning team and he recently took part in the IBSA world Games 2023 at Birmingham and won silver. A great moment for Jafar, a big moment for Orissa. Jafar had brought about a major transformation in the team from losing to winning. He says that his planning and mentoring in the team had brought about these changes in the attitude of the team. Jaffar generally come in at no.5 in the batting order. He is a medium pacer in bowling. What is his most memorable moment? In the final against Pakistan in the T20 tournament, he got two crucial wickets to restrict the Pakistan total and ultimately took India to a win. Who is his favourite cricketer? Pat came the reply – M S Dhoni. As captain of the Orissa team he follows Dhoni’s style of decision making, and this has resulted in many of his decisions being right. He also admires Dhoni for being so cool on the field, an attribute that he follows in his team. Captain Cool! What does he intend to do in the future? He says he wants to work towards bringing in star value for the blind cricketers like the way in which BCCI is doing it. Earlier, most people in India did not know any of the cricketers in the Indian team. Now the team members have started getting followers in the media and they are recognised. He will get into the administration of the game, he says.

• Hometown Bhubaneswar, Odisha
• Education/Qualification M.A. Graduate
• Category B1 (Fully Blind)