A blind man in Zimbabwe has overcome his handicap - to become a top cricket commentator. Dean du Plessis gauges the action by training his acute hearing on the stump microphones. "I was born with tumours on both my retinas, so I was only meant to be alive for three to maximum five months - but I'm 35, not out now, so still playing a good innings," he said. Alongside daily radio work, sports bulletins and a newspaper column, Mr du Plessis sits in the broadcasters' commentary booth. He says he gets no preferential treatment but is wholly dependent on the stump microphones which identify each player's unique characteristics. "If I turn my microphones down, I really will be blind," he said. "Obviously having followed the game for just over 20 years and having commentated for 10 going on 11 years, you get to understand, and you get to know which player does what and that's pretty much how I know what's going on out there."