The first ever
Blind T20 Cricket World Cup kicks off today, in Bangalore, India. Nine teams
along with Team Nepal is competing in the tournament.Team Nepal acting
like media magnet with inclusion of two female members and chairman of Cricket Association of Blind Nepal (CABN) Pawan Ghimere being elected as the Asian Development Director of World Blind Cricket Council" WBCC". (read news)
Nepali Blind Cricket was covered by Aljazeera in 2008(watch video) and since then hasn't had much lime light until now.
My first
impression to this was "it's just blind Cricket who cares"
But since I work
with Cricnepal and it’s the World Cup I thought I might as well look into what
is really is.
I had presumed that the game would be pretty passive
and more of a rehabilitative process than cricket. I stood corrected when I looked into you
tube for videos about blind cricket- the games are
played with electric enthusiasm, the player's athletic skills are phenomenal,
and their understanding of the game is pretty awesome.
The first video I
watched (watch video) was a video about Nepali Team- first few minutes through that I
was enormously stunned by their brilliant fielding skills: they would pick the ball and throw right at the target (analogy-a blindfolded archer hitting the white spot over and over again) and this is only
Regional Blind Cricket that too of Nepal. The matches played are so alive, the fielding
team is cheering every ball, they jump, shout and climb on the bowler when they
get wicket!
The celebrations
after a player gets a wickets made me realize that this game means a lot them.
If the Blind
Cricket in Nepal which hasn’t even completed a decade is this good what about
the teams that are playing the team for over 5 decades (the first recorded
Blind Cricket match was played in 1922 in England). You would be shocked
looking at videos.
They are pretty
awesome – physically fit ( they train really hard to maintain that), I was overwhelmed by their batting skills. My idea was that only way
they can bat is sweep! They play wide range of shots- lofts, paddle sweep,
inside out to covers and lofts through midwicket- shots that require lot of cricketing
skills.
The game is quite
electric, the players put in all their heart and soul in the game, and they
dive, and jump and sometimes fly to save runs or take a catch.
Its a game that any cricket admirer would love to watch!
Now after almost 20 You Tube videos I sit "mind blown!" and extremely excited about Team Nepal's participation in the world Cup. Team Nepal is competing with the best teams of Blind Cricket and its certainly a great feat. (The team, however goes to the tournament without much practice; they were not provided with any pitch to practice on before the tournament.)
Nepali Squad
 |
Nepali Blind Cricket Team that flew to Bangalore yesterday for the World Cup |
Jay Sagar Giri(captain) Khimananda Gaireshanker Regmi, Surya Bhattarai, Ram Prasad Paudel, Amar
Oli, Durga Dutta Paudel, Rajendra Dhital, Sunil Chhetri, Santosh
Sapkota, Jeevan Gurung, Lok Bahadur Thapa, Padam Bahadur Badela,
Bhagwati Bhattarai, and Rupa Baral
Go through these links if you wish to have your "mind blown"
World Cup Promotion (Video)-its for a 2010 ODI World Cup, the New promotional is just shortened form of this
England vs India(video): This video shows how skilled the players are! Observe how the English wicket keeper communicates with the bowler and he throws the ball accordingly.
Team Nepal's Performance in the World Cup:
Nepali team started off the tournament in royal fashion hammering Bangladesh in the opener by 8 wickets. The other matches were pretty disappointing. In the end the win in the opeining game was the only win Team Nepal could get in the tournament.
(click here to get match by match details)
3 comments:
Wow!
Impressive.
"mind blown? "
Wonderful Write up indeed Arun :)
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