Going down, standing up — Tale of a blooming career’s tragic end

“I was standing up to the stumps when the batsman played forward to a Viji chinaman. The ball zipped through his bat and pad and bowled hit the wicket and ricochetted. The bail followed the ball and struck me right on the eye,” said Desai.

An ophthalmologist prescribed eyedrops. But the medication was not sufficient. “It wasn’t until three months after the incident that I realised the seriousness of the injury. My sight was getting blurred. And when the doctor diagnosed that a full-blown cataract had formed in my injured eye, I was shocked,” Desai related.

He underwent surgery and played a couple of matches with contacts but realised that his sight was simply not good enough to play the game any longer.

“I will never know how far my career would have gone without the injury,” said Desai, who toured England with the Indian Schools and also played for the Rest of India in an Irani Trophy match.

Desai had some harsh words for the Karnataka State Cricket Association. “It was a National Championship and I was playing for my State and not for any two-bit club side. They should have come forward to help me. God was kind to me that I was financially well off and I could afford the surgery,” he said.