Sugur Paramashivaiah Nagesh

Sugur Paramashivaiah Nagesh, generally known as S. P. Nagesh, co-founded the Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled in Bengaluru in 1997 with his schoolmate and childhood friend Mahantesh G. Kivadasannavar. Both were visually impaired — Nagesh partially blind from birth — and both had experienced the obstacles the organisation was set up to remove; they conceived it as a body that would serve people with disabilities and others from underprivileged backgrounds through education, accommodation, food, vocational training and placement.

Within Samarthanam, Nagesh's particular contributions were fundraising and the skilling and livelihood training programmes, which he built up substantially. His lasting work, however, was in sport. A cricketer himself, he was the driving force behind organised blind cricket in India, founding and serving as first president of the Cricket Association for the Blind in India, the sport's governing body under Samarthanam's umbrella, and arguing that blind cricket deserved the same standing as other disability sports. He structured the association's tournament system and in 2012 organised the first Twenty20 World Cup for the blind, held in India.

He died on 24 April 2016. Samarthanam's national blind cricket tournament is named the Nagesh Trophy after him.[2][3][4]