Former blind cricketer Fred Raffle is here for current series, he sits in commentary box and keeps tab on the matches
Cricket has a lot of romance in it and it can be heard and experienced if not seen. Ask this 77-year-old retired head of the school of social work studies in University of England, and one will understand a fan’s love and passion for the game.
Fred Raffle, an Englishman, can’t watch cricket. He was born with little vision (now he can’t see), but says he can feel it.
How? The former England cricketer of the blind team has the privilege of sitting with the cricket experts in the commentary box, hear them and follow it.
Raffle is on his ninth visit to India and third tour with the Alastair Cook-led English team. He was here for the series in 2006 and 2012 and on other occasions, he was here on on vacations.
“I was here when Cook made his debut in 2006. Since then I have been coming with the English team. I can’t see cricket, but I follow the game through commentary,” he says as he follows the third day’s play between India and England at the ACA-VDCA Stadium, here on Saturday.
It is easy to follow cricket, says Raffle. He follows the game not just on radio but on TV too. “I listen to the commentary on television. When there is radio commentary on, I have a radio ear phone in one ear and the TV earphone in the other,” he says.
The passionate fan says he is familiar with the game. “I know the (field) positions. I know what all the shots are and what they are like —the hook or a pull or a square cut.
“What I wouldn’t know about is the grace of a batsman. I would know about David Gower when the commentators say that he was a graceful batsman and that if they talk about being big and powerful like Ian Botham. We know he is a big lad and can hit the ball very hard quite like a bit. But I don’t know how it would look like.”
Fred’s love for cricket began when he joined school for the blind boys, where cricket was played.
“We used to play a form of cricket — Blind cricket. So that’s how I knew about all the terminology. I was taught to play and I just loved it. I played a couple of times for England. And then I always listened to the commentary to learn more about the game. It’s just something I loved.”
Taking back to his school days that how he would break school’s rules to listen to commentary when England played Australia Down Under.
“We used to listen to commentaries illegally overnight when we were at school when they (England) played in Australia. And we would be in terrible trouble if caught. In those days, we didn’t have transistor radios. Not the tiny ones which you can keep on your bed, we had big radios. We used to hide them and creep downstairs wearing pyjamas in the freezing English nights to listen to it. Otherwise, you risked getting caught,” says Fried, who has travelled with England for 160 games and visited 60 grounds across the world.
His favourite commentators are John Arlott, Brian Jonston, Peter West. “John was marvellous. From India we had a maharaja who used to come over to England. He was a friend of Jonston. Harsha Bhogle, eventually, is another that I like,” he adds.
Fred, who was born in Engand’s north east side close to Scottish border, is a fan Rahul Dravid. “He is a lovely person. Sachin Tendulkar is fantastic too,” he said.
He also heard the All India Radio commentary which is stopped now. “In 2006. First day there was a lot of trouble. Second day onwards it was better. Half of it was in English the other half in Hindi. I could guess somehow,” said Fred, who on Saturday had the company of the legendary Ian Botham.
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