Tag: Pakistan Blind Cricket team to participate in World Games

Birmingham: Pakistan defeated arch-rivals India by 18 runs in the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Blind Games at King Edward’s School ground on Sunday.

Indian blind team after winning the toss, invited the green shirts to bat first.

Pakistan’s blind team scored 187 runs at the loss of eight wickets in their allocated 20 overs to set a mammoth target of 188 for India.

Pakistan skipper Nisar Ali scored 46 runs, while debutant Mohammad Salman scored a brisk fifty to guide Pakistan to reach a commendable total.

Ajay Kumar Reddy topped the Indian bowling card with four wickets, while Nakula Badanayak picked up three Pakistani wickets.

While chasing a mammoth 188, India started off well with Sunil Ramesh scoring 62 runs, while Durga Rao Tompaki scored 40 runs.

However, Pakistan bowlers pulled them back in the final overs to restrict them to 169 at the loss of seven wickets.

Pakistani bowler Matiullah bowled brilliantly and picked two wickets to restrict the arch-rivals.

Pakistan will face Bangladesh in their next World Blind Games fixture on Tuesday.

Staged after every four years, the IBSA World Games, in a first, is hosting 11 sports competitions after World Blind Cricket Ltd and IBSA agreed to add Cricket for the Visually impaired men and women in this year’s mega event.

Pakistan’s Complete squad

B1 category: Zafar Iqbal, Riyasat Khan, Mohammad Shahzaib, Fakhar Abbas, Mohammad Salman, Mohammad Asif

B2 category: Nasir Ali (c), Badar Munir (vc)

B3 category: Matiullah, Mohsin Khan, Kamran Akhtar, Akmal Hayat, Israr Hasan

Team management: Mohammad Jameel (head coach), Maher Mohammad Younus (coach), Tahir Mahmood Butt (trainer).

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ISLAMABAD: The national blind cricket team will participate in this year’s International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Games, scheduled from August 18 to 27 in Birmingham.

According to the details, the blind cricket team’s participation in the global event will mark an end to a 16-year hiatus.

The Chairman Syed Sultan Shah of the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) confirmed that the cricket governing body will be sending a 20-member side after selecting the deserved players on merit.

“A 20-member Pakistan team will be sent in the extravaganza after full preparation and selection on merit,” said Shah.

“Pakistan team will feature in the mega event after a gap of 16 years. Prior to it, Pakistan chipped in the event two times in 2002 and 2006. Pakistan team could not participate in the World Games after 2006 as some visa issues had popped up time and again.

“But now we are in contact with IBSA and hopefully, our team will go in the World Games this year.”

Meanwhile, Shah further shared that besides Pakistan, India, England and Australia have also confirmed their participation in the mega event.

The PBCC chairman was hopeful that the strong Pakistan team will make the nation proud by winning as they did in the past.

“Pakistan team is very strong and has already won many laurels for the country. I’m hopeful that the Pakistan team will make the country proud in the extravaganza,” he concluded.

It is worth mentioning here that the IBSA World Games is the largest high-level international event for athletes with visual impairments, which features more than 1000 competitors from more than 70 nations.

Staged every four years, the World Games are the pinnacle of the international sporting calendar outside of the Paralympic Games. With three Paralympic and eight non-Paralympic sports, for some athletes, it is the highest level they can compete at.

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