Basil Sylvester Pinto
PANAJI
In competitive sport, camaraderie between the rivals is a luxury one can ill-afford as the opposition likes to begin mental warfare before the actual battle rages on the field more with the slang and in verbatim than cricket skills put to optimum use.
Cricket, by itself is more than just a nomenclature to sport, as it is a profession where the players are hero-worshipped.
Far from the religious following of the Team India and even the IPL stars, is the nondescript relation called ‘blind cricket.’ The type of cricket with players in three visually impaired categories: B1, B2 and B3 constituting the playing XI first came to notice in the State in early October when an international tri-series featuring hosts India, England and Sri Lanka were played in Porvorim. Hardly were there any fans to watch, and the few born fans as audience in the course of the tournament took the few selfies with their countrymen who brought them a few World Cup trophies.
On Wednesday through Friday, Goa will be among four sides competing at the first ever IndusInd Nagesh National Cricket Tournament for the Blind 2018 and the camaraderie between players across team was evident as this roving journo sat beyond the boundary line watching the game upstairs.
In the inaugural match on Wednesday played between hosts Goa and Rajasthan, the visiting team player who was a runner on field was instructed by the on field umpire to wear his gloves to which he ran off the field to return with the said equipment. The opposition, Goa did not lament on the non abiding of the rule or ask for the erring team to be penalized. A salute to the spirit of the game that blind cricket are most sighted with. With the fall of the second Rajasthan wicket, and another B1 player walking to bat, an additional runner was the mandate. But the batting team were in a predicament. They had brought in only three pairs of gloves for the game and had incidentally left three more pairs where they were put up in the state. The batting side required all o their four players on field with gloves on, their two B1 batsmen and the runners as well.
At this point, still early into the game, a Karnataka player was more than happy to lend his gloves which received no complaints from the fielding Goa unit led by Yeshwant Nageshkar.
The batting side appeared a humbled lot and more humbling was a look at their kit bag which this roving sports reporter probed to know of its contents at the end of the game. Islam Ali, the captain of the Rajasthan Cricket Association for the Blind revealed they make do with whatever their association provides us. “We had brought seven bats from Rajasthan for our two matches here, but one cracked at nets yesterday,”Islam Ali revealed to The Goan on Wednesday after their match against the host team. If you have a look at any other domestic cricketer, he would easily have at least three bats carried to nets. A stark contrast that cries to attention that blind cricket needs a lot of foresight from the corporate sector to support this type of cricket which has won us more World Cups than the men or women’s team.
