Sign language commentary in IPL brings stadium, game alive for deaf community | Ipl News
Seconds after Virat Kohli is dismissed during the Royal Challengers Bangalore match against Lucknow Super Giants on April 2, Kinjal Shah’s expression on the bottom right-hand corner of the television screen catches the atmosphere at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. With her right index finger, she draws an imaginary circle, indicating the stadium, before making a screaming expression. The next moment, both her hands come down together, palms down, indicating the drop in noise levels. Then, it’s finger on the lips to indicate the total silence at the stadium. In a matter of seconds, the deaf community experiences what a pin-drop silence feels like in a packed arena of nearly 35,000. This IPL, Star Sports 3 has joined hands with India Signing Hands (ISH), a Mumbai-based broadcast company, to add Indian Sign Language interpretation to its feed. While the Hindi language commentary is on, a sign language interpreter provides a live commentary targeted at the 63 million deaf people in India, many of them cricket enthusiasts. This is the first known instance of sign language being …