Helping my visually impaired uncle enjoy cricket independently
My uncle loves cricket but became visually impaired 3 years ago. TV commentary is good, but he couldn't follow scores during the day when he's at his shop. Radio commentary isn't always available for all matches, and he felt disconnected from his favorite sport.
I built a simple app using Cricbuzz's API and Google Text-to-Speech that reads out ball-by-ball commentary in Hindi. It runs on his phone with large buttons he can feel. Now he listens to every India match while working, and for the first time in years, he's hosting cricket discussions with customers again.
why this exists: March 2023 - my uncle Rajesh chacha, who's been a cricket fanatic for 40+ years, started losing his vision due to diabetes complications. he owns a small mobile repair shop and used to listen to radio commentary all day. but with fewer matches on radio now (everything's on streaming), he was missing cricket terribly. saw him sitting quietly during the India-Australia series, and it broke my heart. so i built this. now he listens to every match in Hindi while fixing phones. customers say he's back to his old cheerful self. 🏏❤️
Click play to hear automated cricket commentary
Best moment: During India vs Pakistan match (October 2023), 12 customers stayed at his shop listening together. Chacha was explaining every ball like he could see it. One customer said "Rajesh bhai sees cricket better than all of us!" 🥹
Fetches live scores from Cricbuzz every 30 seconds
Generates natural-sounding commentary from score data
Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu using Google TTS
Large touch targets, voice commands, no complex UI
Python script fetches JSON from Cricbuzz API, extracts key events (boundaries, wickets, milestones)
Template-based system creates contextual commentary. "Kohli hits FOUR" becomes natural sentences with excitement for boundaries.
Google Cloud TTS API with Indian English and Hindi voices. Adjusted speed and pitch for better listening experience.
Caches last 100 balls so commentary continues even with spotty internet connection at the shop.
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