Chennai: Ravichandran Ashwin, who won the ICC Cricketer and Test Cricketer of the Year awards in 2016, has pledged to donate his eyes.

This was revealed on January 7 by Ashwin who shared a picture on twitter regarding the same:

Ashwin, 30, is not the first Indian cricketer who has pledged to donate his eyes as Gautam Gambhir, India head coach Anil Kumble, Vinod Kambli and Navjot Singh Sidhu have also pledged to donate their body organs.

According to numbers, India had more than 15 million blind people in the year 2007.

India needs a mass movement to make people aware about organ donation, how they can help others and how their gesture can help another person.

The example of Ashwin and others is expected to encourage other Indians to donate their body parts.

Ashwin is a right-handed batsman and right-arm off break bowler. He plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket and the Rising Pune Supergiants in the IPL. He is the fastest Indian bowler to reach the 50, 100-, 150- and 200-wicket mark in Test cricket. In 2016, he became the only Indian after Rahul Dravid and Sachin Tendulkar to win the ICC Cricketer of the Year award.

He made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in December 2006, and captained the team the following season. But it was not until the 2010 Indian Premier League in which he played for the Chennai Super Kings, that he came into the limelight with his economical bowling and earned his maiden international call-up in the limited-overs formats in June 2010.

He was the leading wicket-taker and player of the tournament of the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa. He was also part of the Indian squad that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Later that year, he made his Test debut against West Indies and became the seventh Indian to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut. He took two five-wicket hauls and scored a century in that series and won the player of the series award.

In September 2016, he became the fastest Indian and second overall to get 200 wickets by dismissing Kane Williamson in India’s 500th test match.

He was a recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2014 and the BCCI’s international cricketer of the year for the 2012–2013 season. He also won the ICC Cricketer of the year 2016 along with ICC Test Cricketer of the year 2016 in December, 2016.