By Shweta Srinivasan
New Delhi, Dec 5 (IANS) The blind will have to wait to enjoy their brand of cricket for lack of official patronage. The Indian Blind Cricket League (IBCL), an international tournament scheduled for February 2010, has been called off due to lack of funds and a clash with preparations for the Commonwealth Games next year.
The IBCL -- the equivalent of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the visually impaired -- was to be held with an aim to popularise blind cricket and to enable the visually challenged to play the game and in turn gain confidence.
But with inadequate funds and no sponsors coming their way organisers were facing an uphill task of planning the international event. Adding to that is another problem: the national capital is also hosting the Commonwealth Games in October next year and all concerned are too busy with that.
"We are not doing the IBCL in February next year. It will probably happen a little later. Till then we are working on using community cricket as a tool for the blind people to gain confidence," George Abraham, founder of the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India, told IANS.
"The main reason for this is that funds were lacking and when events of such scale are organised one needs money and a lot of effort unlike the IPL or T20 events where sponsors are waiting to put in resources. Also February was not a good choice, since preparations for the Commonwealth Games will be in full swing," he added.
Blind cricket is considered no less exhilarating than mainstream cricket. The game is fast paced and acutely instinctive since the players rely only on audio cues of the specially designed tin ball and stick bat.
Since there is only under-arm bowling, the frequently played sweep shot requires top levels of fitness.
The sport has developed quite a following since the ball was developed around the 1980s. Abraham says that even in the most remote corner of the country everyone speaks the language of cricket. "A large chunk of the estimated visually impaired people follow cricket. Radio is a critical tool and I guess the passion for cricket propped up from commentaries."
He adds however that working with the blind "is still seen as a charity issue". So instead of having just an event, organisers want the sport to take shape in communities where there is more scope for rehabilitation and more beneficiaries.
"There is resistance in our organisation to just having events. We want to use cricket for development. The challenge would be to get the right kind of partners. We are now planning to use cricket at the community level, organise small events in order to help blind people gain confidence.
"We will collaborate with NGOs working on community-based rehabilitation. We will need to spend on developing content on physical fitness and will approach corporates and funding agencies for this," Abraham said.
The community tournaments should take place in three years, he said.
The Indian cricket team of blind players has won many accolades, thwarting international counterparts in World Cups organised in 1998 and 2002. More recently on a tour of England in 2007, the Indian cricket team of blind players routed hosts England 5-0 in a One-Day International series. The next Blind Cricket World Cup is scheduled for 2011.
India is home to an estimated 15 million blind and an additional 45 million people with visual impairment, the largest chunk of the world's estimated 40 million people living with the disability.