'Bowling Without Arms Was A Miracle' - Meet Kashmir's Armless Cricketer

“Batting was not a difficult task. But bowling without arms was a miracle and I somehow managed to do it,” said 26-year-old Amir Hussain Lone. Hailing from Wagam village in south Kashmir’s Bijbehara, Amir is the captain of Jammu and Kashmir’s para-cricket team, and has overcome unbelievable hurdles to get to where he is.

His toes curl up around the ball, clutching it firm in his foot as he delivers the perfect leg-spinner. With the bat between his chin and shoulder, practice and steely determination has helped him hit the ball with precision.

In 1997, when he was eight, the young boy suffered an accident in his father’s sawmill. As he recounts the incident to BBC, “It was a Sunday and the night before my father had told us not to use the machine in the morning because he was going to be away. But while he was gone, one of our family friends came over and said he needed to saw some wood for someone, and could we please help. My elder brother went over and later my mum asked me to take lunch for him. I didn’t want to go, but I went anyway.”

He continued, “My brother and the others got busy eating their lunch and I was playing with a bunch of other kids around the saw, when my jacket got caught in the machine and before I could even understand what was happening the machine had sucked me in. One after the other my arms got cut off, and then I got thrown into some kind of a ditch.” It was only later that one of his neighbours, a young girl, bravely went to the village’s army camp for help, and Amir finally reached a hospital in Srinagar. Three long years edged on as he recovered in the hospital, with people calling him “as good as dead”, advising his parents to feed him poison and end it all. Through all this, his family, especially his grandmother Fazee, stood by him with unwavering support.

He describes his time in the hospital as if he was in a dark room, with no interest in the outside world. And as he left the hospital, he describes it being almost like the coming of spring after a long winter, with new hope on the horizon.

Watch Barcroft TV’s video to see Amir Hussain Lone in action.

Discrimination against Amir for being differently abled sprouted in different parts of his life, from neighbours shooing him away from their homes when he went there to watch cricket matches on their televisions, to a teacher telling him to go home when he was in Class III. His father Bashir Ahmad Lone, who sold his agricultural land and sawmill to pay for Amir’s treatment, received unwanted advise from people in the village telling him to get rid of his son, calling Amir a useless burden. Still, his family stood strong. Fazee insisted that Amir went to school, learnt how to use his feet, and encouraged him to be self-dependent and follow his dreams.

From shaving and changing his clothes, to writing and even bowling, Amir trained his feet to do everything his hands would’ve done. His education took him to college level, where a teacher noticed his love for cricket and nurtured his budding talent, introducing him to para cricket. For his first match with the para cricket team, the regular bowlers were conceding far too many runs, and his captain offered him a chance to bowl. As whispers of doubt came from the other players, he describes his moment to shine, “I grabbed the ball with my feet and bowled and I got a wicket on my first ball.”

Today, as the captain of the team, he has become the pride of his family and a minor celebrity in his village. Earlier this month, RAMKY infrastructure announced their decision to employ Amir under their Corporate Social Responsibility on a monthly honorarium of Rs. 12,000 a month, and he was even felicitated by the district administration for his field performances, talent and perseverance. With financial stability, he can focus on his game and even aim to achieve his life’s goal: “I am a supporter of Sachin Tendulkar. He is my inspiration and I want to play like him. My dream is to play for the national team.”