Dean du Plessis - Stumped, But Not Out

On this episode of Noisy Balls, I had the great pleasure of interviewing the totally blind radio and television commentator Dean du Plessis, who currently hosts his own very impressive podcast Dean At Stumps.

Dean was born with tumors behind both retinas, destroying his eyesight before birth. He subsequently had both eyes removed, and currently wears glass eyes. Dean's brother Gary played first class cricket in Zimbabwe for the Mashonaland A cricket team.

Dean started his love affair with cricket in 1991, when South Africa were re-admitted into the international cricketing fraternity and he was a student a boarding school in Worcester, South Africa. He used to spend his pocket money in calling up Radio One in Zimbabwe to know the scores, when the Zimbabwe national cricket team were given test status in 1992.

Dean's obsession for the game saw him collect the home phone numbers of Dave Houghton, Grant Flower and Alistair Campbell and discuss cricket in length with them. His knowledge about the game impressed Ravi Shastri, who allowed Dean to sit in the commentary box. The commentators eventually started chatting with him, and asking for his opinions. His first stint as a commentator was when his childhood friend Neil Manthorp, who was doing radio commentary for ESPNcricinfo allowed him a 15-minute stint. Dean's knowledge impressed the Cricinfo team, who hired him for the rest of the series.

His television debut was in 2003 with Mike Haysman during Zimbabwe's second one-day international with West Indies at the Queens Sports Club, in Bulawayo. He has travelled to South Africa and Bangladesh as part of the commentary team for different studios. He has also been a regular contributor and columnist for The Herald and The Daily News

Dean is wired to the stump microphone, and bases his commentary on the sounds that he picks up.

I thank Dean for giving up some of his valuable time to be on the podcast and wish you much success as you continue on your cricket broadcasting career.

Noisy Balls is proudly sponsored by the Victorian Blind Cricket Associationand we appreciate the VBCA's support as we bring in a new dawn in blind cricket podcasting.

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