As soon as the Garuda Boeing 737 touched down at Mumbai airport after India's historic 1971 Test series triumph in England, over 1.5 million fans got ready to watch a motorcade carrying Ajit Wadekar's men to the Cricket Club of India (CCI) in what was their second homecoming that year (after their victory in WI). En route to CCI, there were two touching incidents that occurred. One of them was mentioned in Wadekar's book My Cricketing Years. "When we passed the school for the blind at Worli, I was deeply moved and asked the driver to stop to receive the garlands from these kind enthusiasts," he wrote. The second incident was not mentioned. A few kilometres away, at the Haji Ali junction, Wadekar was received with garlands by the boys from the Fellowship of the Physically Handicapped.

What a moment!
One of them hugged him and asked if he could provide them an avenue to play the game. That's when the thought of setting up a formal body for disabled cricket first came about in Wadekar's mind, according to TP Mirajkar, who worked with Wadekar to promote cricket for the disabled. In 1988, Wadekar set up the All India Cricket Association for Physically Challenged (AICAPC), the first formal body for disabled cricketers.