Yes, that is correct!
They are Blind. They are Team Pakistan. They too are cricketers. They have made 
the Finals in three previous showings. Now they have won the World Cup second time running.
The last couple of weeks, venues in Islamabad and Rawalpindi have seen cricket matches played by the Blind for the World Cup. Teams from seven countries participated in this tournament. They were: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and West Indies. (See another video news clip here).
This World Cup tournament received scant media coverage (although on winning the World Cup did get them a picture on the front page of Dawn) and even less public knowledge or participation. The opening games were played on the League-basis, followed by semi-finals and the final was played on Saturday December 16th between India and Pakistan.
The Pakistan team lifted the World Cup after beating India by six wickets.
I confess to not knowing much about this genre of cricket. I understand the ball rattles, it is bowled under-hand and the batsmen sweep it across the playground. Otherwise, the scene is unmistakably of a cricket ground and the players every bit look and act like cricketers.
Here are some interesting facts picked from The News which provided good coverage, probably because the Jang Group and Geo TV were among the major sponsors of the event:
- “Pakistani (Blind) fielders exhibited outstanding work as six Indian batsmen were run out.� Any such feat or expectation from the sighted team?
- Pakistan’s entire winning team received Rs. 200,000 as WIN BONUS. All the best players (of the tournament?) in their categories were awarded $200 each. What modest players and team winning the World Cup and settling for a fraction of the sighted team’s largesse.
- Scores of 360, over 200 etc. were made in several matches.
- Pakistan set FIVE World Records during a 10 wicket victory against New Zealand team.
We all know what fortunes are made when just one sighted player breaks World Records. Here a blind team set 5 new records and nothing moved in their favour. Is it discrimination against the visually challenged, or what??? One wonders, also, what incentives are provided to our women cricketers?
Deeda-i-Beena is a former graduate teacher, has international experience and background in social, environmental and human developement issues.
These gentlemen need more patronage. When regular cricket team players can get millions of rupees on top of contracts & jobs they already have, it’s only fair that these sportsmen also get respectable rewards. Rs $200k for the team and $200 (Rs 12,000)for individual members is nothing.
Congratulations to all Pakistanis on this happy occasion!
Indeed these guys are mashallah very talented. Thosse who says like that are blind themselves.
IMHO, the term “Blind” itself is very offensive for these talented players. They can perform well in their field. The only problem with them is that they can’t see. I would like that some english expert suggest a decent term for them like we use the term “SPECIAL” for disable people.
well, another thing on friday Anwar ali of blind cricket team made an asian record too … he paraglided from margalla hills all by himself … a picture can be found here
This also raises the larger issue of how society treats the blind and other challenged populations. The importance of victories like this is that they educate peopel about what can be done desite the challenges.
[quote comment=”17461″]Some say the players arn’t blind at all, they can see just fine. I laughed hard when I heard that. It sounded like a very Pakistani thing load the ‘blind’ cricket team with players with 20/20 vision.[/quote]
That’s a very insensitive way of looking at it…especially for someone who proudly makes his profession part of his alias. The point is that these players have IMPAIRED vision, and, as I understand it, the ICC has very strict rules governing who can participate…in fact, they even have different scoring based on the level of handicap.
The least thing we so-called ‘educated’ people can do is encourage stories such as these and help remove the terrible and despicably insensitive stigmas associated with people having physical and mental disabilities in our country.