Here's why BCCI got rid of paralysed ball-boy Dharamveer Pal

New Delhi: The The Board of Control for Cricket in India has decided not to use Dharamveer Pal, the polio-afflicted fan of Team India, as a ball-boy anymore.

The board informed cricket associations across the country to not put anyone specially abled at the boundary.

The decision was taken after the BCCI was criticised online for using the services of a polio-afflicted person, reports The Indian Express.

Dharamveer is well known to many Indian players. During his farewell Test match in Mumbai in 2013, Sachin Tendulkar took time out to meet with Dharamveer and Sudhir Kumar Gautam, the fan who paints his body in the colours of the Indian flag, and told them to keep supporting cricket, adds the report. 

In the wake of this, as Dharamveer reached the Wankhede Stadium to collect his accreditation, he was disappointed upon hearing this ultimatum by the BCCI.

"I went to MCA and I was told that I won’t get the pass. I got a ticket from an Indian player. Mujhe match dekhne se matlab hai. (I just want to watch the match), be it from the boundary rope or from the stands. I tried to ask MCA why they are not issuing a pass and I was told that there is some new BCCI rule. I have no complaint — whatever name I have earned in India is because of cricket. I have been cheering the Indian team for years now and will continue to do so," he told the newspaper.

Dharamveer was born to a family of farmers in a village in the Morena district of Madhya Pradesh. His family was so poor that growing up he could not afford a wheel chair. Obsessed with cricket since he was a boy, he was 11 years old back in 2004, when he decided to take his dream of watching a cricket match live at a stadium, into his own hands. India was to play Sri Lanka in Mohali, Punjab, and Dharamveer was determined to be there.