The winds of change have been blowing at the Board of Control for Cricket in India for quite a while now, with Monday seeing the appointment of ex-Comptroller and Auditor General Vinod Rai, along with Ramachandra Guha, Vikram Limaye and Diana Edulji by the Supreme Court to supervise the management of the BCCI.
The Lodha panel clamped down on various irregularities in the functioning of the body, but another issue which was not raised was the cold shoulder over the years that India’s cricketing body has given to cricket for the visually impaired.
The T20 World Cup for the blind is currently underway in our country, with ten teams taking part in what is the second edition of this tournament. The defending champions are India, who took on a Pakistan side in the round robin stage on Wednesday, with the men in green breezing to a seven-wicket win.
The match was well-contested but in the end, Pakistan won by a comfortable margin – which to an extent highlights the wide gulf in the way blind cricket is perceived in the two neighbouring nations and the support it receives from the national body for the sport.
The BCCI rules the roost when it comes to the more recognised form of the game, earning hundreds of crores of rupees every year and dominating the decision-making process of the game at the international level as well. But when it comes to supporting cricket for the visually challenged, it has turned a blind eye for a long.period of time.
For this edition of the Blind World Cup, it had promised a sum of Rs 2 crore to the Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI), which is less than even one percent of its total annual revenue. However, following the restrictions placed by the Lodha panel, even this sanctioned amount could not be paid.
Shailender Yadav, who is the secretary of the Delhi arm of the CABI, explained how the World Cup is organised. “The CABI is organising the World Cup on its own accord. The World Blind Cricket Council gives the green light so that we can invite all the other countries, but everything is organised by us. Our parent body is a trust named Samarthanam, which is based in Bengaluru,” he said.
The CABI had initially set a target of raising Rs 24.5 crore for the tournament, but later it was halved to Rs 12 crore. Owing to the BCCI’s pullout and the demonetization move, there were serious doubts whether the amount could be raised in time. However, with the support of state governments and entities like IndusInd Bank, who are the Indian side’s shirt sponsors, they have been able to get the tournament underway, as it began on January 31 in Delhi.
Team India are the reigning champions and have made the nation proud on multiple occasions – winning international tours, the Asia Cup as well as the 2014 ODI World Cup, which is played with 40 overs in an innings. Shekhar Naik, former captain of the Indian team, was recently named in the Padma Shri shortlist and became the first visually impaired cricketer to be bestowed with such an honour.
However, other blind cricketers still remain at a considerable distance from the limelight, quite unlike their mainstream counterparts.
CABI and Samarthanam have the entire responsibility of securing funding, organising tournaments at state, zonal, national and international level and getting a team together – all this without any support from the BCCI, which is by far the richest board in international cricket. The players play solely for their love of the sport and are unable to make ends meet solely by playing international cricket.
Ketan Patel, who was the Man of the Match in the World Cup opener against Bangladesh and scored a match-winning 77 against Pakistan in the first T20 World Cup final, makes a living by rice farming and selling milk and despite several appeals to the Gujarat government, he has been unable to find employment to ease his financial woes.
Is this sort of treatment towards our players fair by any means?
To find a proper system where blind cricket is given due importance by the national board and players are given regular salaries, we have to look no further than our neighbours Pakistan. The Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) was formed in 1997 and is fully affiliated with the Pakistan Cricket Board.
Despite its comparatively limited resources to the BCCI, the PCB is leading the way by providing a highly professional structure for blind cricket in the country and has helped raise awareness about the sport and its players among the Pakistani public, according to Anees Baig, who is leading the side here in India.
“The support from the PCB is a great boost for us. Each player receives a monthly honorarium of about 15-20 thousand rupees and a separate allocation is made for blind cricket in the board’s annual budget. Nowhere else in the world such a model is followed and we are very grateful for the board’s extraordinary support,” said Baig.
There are over 14 clubs exclusively dedicated to cricket for the visually impaired, who compete in over ten tournaments over the year – all of which are extremely competitive. Baig stated, “There are alteast six domestic tournaments at national level for blind cricket, along with two or three Super League tournaments. All of these are organised by the PBCC with the support of the PCB.”
The Pakistan side are genuine favourites to lift the trophy and with the kind of backing they have, it is easy to see why. With the BCCI still undergoing structural and functional reform which is expected to continue for quite a while, it remains to be seen whether the issue of the blind cricket team will be up for consideration. Till then, all the men in blue can do is to go out, give their best and make it two World Cups in a row.
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