Blind cricket champs steal Bahrain’s hearts

Manama

World Champions the Cricket Association for the Blind of India (CABI) completed its playing tour of Bahrain with a 12 run win over Bapco yesterday at the Awali Oval Cricket Ground.

India scored 112 for three in its 12 overs with the main scorers being Prakash (44, 4x4), Ajay (17, 1x4) and Jaffar (13) and in reply Bapco were restricted to 100 for five in 12 overs with runs coming from Vijay (18, 2x4, Gautham (18, 2x4), Ahmed Hamad (12, 1x4) and Ishtiaq (11, 1x4).

To finish off proceedings for the day, Bapco batsmen donned blindfolds in an innings of five overs and could only manage eight runs in total. The team who had played the previous night at the Bahrain Rugby Club in Saar showed that despite being partially or totally blind, they could beat the odds and compete against normal sighted people. They demonstrated great skills both batting and some fine fielding despite their impaired vision. 

India is the current world champions after they defeated Pakistan by five wickets in the final of the Blind Cricket World Cup last December in Cape Town, South Africa.

The team who arrived in Bahrain on Monday is coached by Patrick Rajkumar after flying in from England after a series of ODIs and T20 matches against them. The team has won the World Cup in 2014 and T20 world title in 2012 under his command.

“It was very a successful tour of England and a chance to play a top four and rapidly rising team in very different conditions that we are used to and was good for both sides. It was nice to play on international grounds and a good experience for us all. The England Cricket Board (ECB) were very professional and looked after us really well and were very professional in organisation and hospitality,” said Mr Rajkumar.

He further added that the reception the team has received in Bahrain has been fantastic, very hospitable and greatly appreciated. 

P Nakesh who is partially sighted and the president of CABI said, “Our tour of England was near perfect as we won five of our six matches with the other one affected by rain. This was my first tenth tour to England since 1984 and England are going to be challenging ourselves and Pakistan in the near future as they have certainly improved.”

Treasurer and Manager Game Promotions for CABI and Selection Committee Chairman E.John David also partially sighted was delighted with the recent tour to England, “We won all but one of our matches and lived up to our reputation as world champions. England generally was very cool and difficult at times with the wet and windy conditions, but we were happy with our general performance. We see ourselves, Pakistan, Australia and South Africa as major forces in our form of the game. We are looking for more recognition from the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) with the providing of more funds, which happened for the first time with expenses and payments for playing at the World Cup last year and support from the government.” 

Mahantesh G K, General Secretary of CABI and a senior Vice President of the World Blind Cricket Council says, “The prime focus is to talk with the BCCI and the Government to develop a financial structure and increase development around India. We would furthermore be more than happy to coordinate and help development of Blind Cricket in Bahrain if requested. We were very impressed with the ECB on our England tour who were so hospitable, even providing Indian food for us, played on excellent grounds and had the honour to meet former England test player Mike Gatting who sat through the whole of one of our matches.”

Blind Cricket is played to the same rules as regular cricket with a few modifications, such as the ball is larger and filled with ball bearing, the stumps are larger and a bowler must shout ‘play’ when they are to bowl. 

During the Bahrain visit, the team have visited the St Christopher and Sacred Heart schools, the RIA Centre, Indian Embassy, last night the Indian Club and today some of the Indian schools before leaving for home tonight.

The tour to Bahrain is supported by Batelco, Gulf Air, Mathias Tourism and Gulf Air.