Cricket
on Roundabouts in Delhi (India), 07/Mar/2011 13:58, 34 days ago
On Saturday Score Foundation (the organisation I work for) joint hosted an event to welcome the Dutch cricket team to India and introduce them to the game of blind cricket. Members of the Dutch cricket team, the Dutch Ambassador and Embassy employees and a blind cricket team from one of the local schools turned out to play cricket and teach the Dutch team and other attendees about the rules and logistics of blind cricket.Thankfully my attendance did not require me to play cricket, a game I last remember playing about 18 years ago in the garden at home when at least half of the match would be spent retrieving the ball from the neighbours’ gardens and fighting over who would have to go round to pick up the ball this time or climb over the fence. However, since arriving in India I’ve had a double incentive to understand more about the game and give it due respect. I now understand that cricket is to India what football is to theUK. In every park and ‘empty’ piece of flat land you will find a cricket game or several taking place. Cricket players are given a godlike status in India and passions run particularly high during the World Cup series. Then there is blind cricket, a much less widely publicised or understood gamebut with a considerable following and kudos of its own which since working at Score Foundation I’ve had cause to learn more about.Score Foundation was my first encounter with blind cricket as the organisation’s Chief Exec, George Abraham, is the founding Chairman of the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC) and the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India (ACBI). The game is played internationally and since 1998 three Blind World Cups have been held. Blind cricket is essentially played to the samerules as sighted cricket but with a few modifications. For example, the ball is made of hard plastic and filled with ball bearings so that it makes a noise when it moves and the wickets are screwed together to ensure they are aligned. The bowler also gives an audio clue before bowling and the batsman gives an audio clue when he is ready. Saturday was the first time that I’d actually got to watch blind cricket in action and they certainly gave the Dutch players that attended the run around.As ever the day would not have been complete without a lesson of some kind and when I went to talk to the boys from the blind cricket team and told them where I was from they proceeded to give me a detailed breakdown of the England cricket team and their recent performances in the World Cup. Mostly I was required to just stand and murmur in agreement apart from one tense moment when one boy excitedly said to me,“Sachin Tendulkar is a god! Don’t you think so?” There was a moment of awkward silence when I murmured, “Mmmm,” enthusiastically in response thinking, ‘who the hell is Sachin Tendulkar?’ but was thankfully saved by another voice piping up from the crowd in disagreement to this statement, which then ensued in the rest of them rounding on him. I decided this was my moment to quietly slip away. And yes, I have since learnt who Sachin Tendulkar is and why he is considered a god. For all those that are as ignorant as I was and interested here’s a link!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachin_Tendulkar