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Australian legendary cricketer Brett Lee, regarded as one of the world’s fastest bowlers, was seen playing some fun cricket at Cusrow Baug on 20th September, 2018, regaling all the excited residents with his charisma and posing with the young and old for selfies and pics! Lee’s presence at Cusrow Baug was part of an advertisement campaign that he is shooting for – supporting a cause he holds close to his heart – the lack of awareness about hearing loss. As the Global Hearing Ambassador for Cochlear, the hearing implant maker, Lee has been promoting this campaign for four years, to raise awareness about hearing loss and its emotional and social impact on individuals, particularly on children.

As part of this campaign, Brett Lee visited Jehan Daboo’s residence in Cusrow Baug, Mumbai and met with few recipients of the Cochlear hearing implants. In an interactive session, Lee discussed their experience of using the implants and their future plans. The visit to Cusrow Baug was coordinated by Vahishtai Daboo, also involved in the field of hearing loss, and teaches children to learn, listen and speak through her NGO, ‘VConnect Foundation’ – a parent support group for children with hearing loss. Later, Lee played galli cricket with the kids, and not surprisingly, bowled a lot of our fair maidens over!

Lee has appealed to the government to mandate UNHS or ‘Universal Newborn Hearing Screening’, which has been the core of his campaign, to spread greater awareness about hearing health. Parents of children with significant hearing loss could intervene early, and children could go to regular schools and lead normal lives. He said, “Technology is transforming the experience of deafness. With Cochlear, our collective goal is to bring life back into people’s lives. The significance of hearing loss is still underestimated, despite the figures painting a clear picture: 466 million people in the world suffer from hearing loss issues. I feel fortunate to be able to use my profile to draw attention to the importance of good hearing and the consequences of hearing loss in India. I have personally witnessed how an implant takes a person from silence to sound. It is a life changing moment.”

He also urged the people to sign the online petition “Plea To Make Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Mandatory in India” on change.org to bring in the change in our country. [Link: bit.ly/makeUNHSmandatory].