By Charles Randall

31 December 2011

Umesh Valjee, the outstanding deaf cricketer of his era and well known in the Club Cricket Conference, has been awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours list for services to disabled sport.

Valjee, 42, richly deserves his recognition as a role model for similarly disabled players. Captain of the England Deaf XI on their tour to Australia last winter, he scored three centuries in the first four games and was named the player of the series -- success that earned him the ECB's England disability cricketer of the year last May, though the MBE recognises his contribution on and off the field.

Valjee overcame his handicap to play premier league cricket for Stanmore CC in Middlesex and one season for The Mote CC in Maidstone. He toured with the Club Cricket Conference to Australia in 1997 and Zimbabwe in 1999 and was good enough to play county 2nd XI games for Gloucestershire and Hampshire, but he became renowned in disabled cricket after making his debut for England Deaf in 1992, going on to play 54 times -- 41 as captain. He has scored 2,638 runs at an average of 49 in Tests and 47 in one-day internationals.

Apart from Valjee, the New Year Honours recognised the work of Jeff Levick, 74, with an MBE for his work in disabled cricket. Having started out as a coach and player at Littleton CC in Hampshire in 1976, he turned his attention to disabilities, creating one of the most advanced schemes in the UK - the Hampshire Disability Cricket Program. The project provides training and competitive opportunities for people of all ages with a variety of learning, emotional and physical disabilities.

Valjee started playing at the age of 15 for West London Deaf CC and he received coaching from Joe Hussain, Nasser's father, at Ilford CC before moving into top-grade club cricket with Stanmore. His ambition to be a professional cricketer was never realised, though he regarded his inability to hear as a hindrance rather than a limitation. "Of course, sometimes I think if I was hearing, my talent could have been different. I could have talked to people about my cricket. But generally I'm happy," he told journalist Sharda Ugra in an interview for ESPNcricinfo in October.

Valjee reckoned that touring with hearing colleagues for a month brought benefits of improvement but also hours of boredom in a silent world while travelling. He said through his sign interpreter Sula Gleeson: "It was a great learning experience for me, but parts of it could be very frustrating... everybody is chatting but what do you do?"

He disclosed that during the CCC trip to Australia he taught sign language to a team-mate Richard Halsall, now England's fielding coach. On both tours team-mates began by mumbling at him, but by the end everyone was trying to gesture and make things clear. Deaf players compensated for lack of hearing by extra alertness, so that incidents such as run-outs were rare.

Amusingly Valjee talked about full-blown swearing in sign language, a sort of sledging by gesture. He said that umpires come to deaf matches, whichever match, even England versus Australia, and thought 'oh, this is lovely, it's so quiet,' but he added: "It's not. We're all signing away all the time."

Valjee offered insight into deaf cricket when he told ESPNcricinfo that "watching closely" and body language were key aspects. He said running between wickets was all about eye contact, picking up cues from his partner and perfecting the deaf cricketer's sixth sense - watchfulness. "If he runs, I run," he said. "If he stops, I don't run... you know."

The ECB's formal involvement with deaf cricket from the early 2000s brought significant improvement in back-up. The English Cricket Association for the Deaf, started in 2009, has worked with ECB's development squad to introduce the deaf into the sport. The ECB runs the national deaf squad and deals with all aspects of coaching. According to Valjee, this is the best time for the disabled since he started playing in the 1990s.