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DEAN du Plessis was born blind.

Forty-four years on, he says he is the world’s only blind cricket commentator, and journalist, and does not get tired of explaining how he is Zimbabwe’s most recognised voice in cricket.

“The stumps microphones are my bread and butter,” du Plessis said.

“When you listen to the stump mic, you hear the bowler as he gets to the crease and bowls.

“They all have different ways. You listen to the grunts when they release the ball.

“You can hear the batsman’s voice and you know who they are, just by the way they call between the wickets whether they say no or wait.”

He was born in Harare and enjoyed a comfortable upbringing, spending the early years of his childhood in his hometown of Kadoma.

He was initially drawn to broadcasting while at a boarding school for the blind in Worcester, just outside Cape Town in South Africa, and he idolised several radio commentators who covered domestic cricket in the country, at that time.

However, that extraordinary hearing ability — Du Plessis’s biggest asset — is now fading, he said, as he marked his 20th year, covering the game.

“It’s very worrying, to be honest,” said Du Plessis. “I sometimes go into complete panic mode.

“I want to get these hearing aids but they are not the normal, everyday aids. These cost US$4 000, which is a lot of money.

“Nothing is impossible, if I can recover from two tumours that I was born with, which caused my blindness, surely I can find that amount from somewhere.”

His older brother Gary, a club cricketer in Zimbabwe, and father Chris — a big cricket fan — were his earliest cricketing influences.

However, Gary died in a 2006 car crash, and Chris passed away last year.

“My dad was my biggest supporter and number one fan. Nobody on this planet gets close. We both agreed that Dave Houghton is the best player to have represented Zimbabwe.”

Houghton, who was recently appointed Zimbabwe’s coaching manager, has also been a very supportive figure in du Plessis’s career.

“We started to form a bond when I used to call him from our hostel call-box in South Africa and pester him,” chuckled du Plessis.

“I would personally not have been happy with a schoolboy continuously calling me to talk a whole bunch of nonsense.

“But Davie entertained me, and he was very kind to me.”

Houghton, too, has high respect for du Plessis.

“I’ve known Dean for many years. I first met him with his father while watching his brother play cricket,” Houghton told Al Jazeera.

“I’ve always known he had a great passion for the game and despite never being able to see, he has an incredible knowledge and understanding of the game.

“This makes him a very capable summariser of the game.”

Being endorsed as the best by Du Plessis draws a typically modest reaction from Houghton.

“It’s very kind of him to rate me so highly,” said Houghton. “Personally, I would think Colin Bland was the best and Andy Flower next.

“Hopefully, I make the top 10.”

Brian Goredema, a local journalist, also speaks of Du Plessis’s “amazing memory and knowledge”.

“For me, his greatest quality was that he never felt sorry for himself. He could see the funny side of his visual impairment.

“Two decades on, Dean is still a straight talker but, unfortunately, his hearing is starting to fail him.”

Du Plessis was encouraged by another journalist, Neil Manthorp, who he calls an old friend, to go on air in 2001 when the first tri-series was played in Zimbabwe and included West Indies and India. — Al Jazeera.