KATHMANDU, Jan 28: Cricket Association of Blind Nepal (CABN) has accused the state of ignoring the sports of differently abled people after National Sports Council (NSC) Member Secretary Keshab Kumar Bista didn’t turn up for farewell of India bound blind cricket team on Friday.
CABN had organized a program in the capital to bid farewell for Nepali team which is leaving for India to take part in the 2nd T20 Blind Cricket World Cup. But Bista arrived after the program ended and players and officials had left the site. “We had invited NSC Member Secretary to come here and encourage our players who are representing Nepal in Blind Cricket World Cup. But he didn’t arrive despite his promises to come. This shows state is not serious about differently abled people and the sports they play,” said Pawan Ghimire, the president of CABN.
Talent show of differently abled in September
“If it was World Cup (abled player’s) I think he would have come. Despite being differently abled we also want to make our country proud through sports and we are confident of doing so,” further added Ghimire.
A 14-member Nepali squad captained by Kirtan Shrestha Duwal is leaving for India on Saturday to take part in the Blind Cricket World Cup scheduled for January 28 to February 12 where 10 counties will participate. Nepali team includes five players from B1 category while it consists four and five players from B2 and B3 categories respectively. B1 consists Bikram Bahadur Rana, Sunil Subedi Chhetri, Jiwan Gurung, Abdul Jahid and Bharat Chaulagain while B2 includes Durga Dutta Poudel, Shobh Ram Dangi, Sunil Rana and Badri Chaulagain. Similarly B3 category features captain Kirtan Shrestha Duwal, Sunil Thapa Magar, Ramesh Bahadur Baniya, Shankar Regmi and Padam Badela. B1 refers to the totally blind players while B2 players are the ones who have low vision and can see up to five meters only and the players of B3 also have low vision and are abled to see up to 20 meters. Rijan Praju is team coach while Niroj Giri is team manager flying to India.
Beside host India, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies will be facing each other in the stadiums of Delhi, Mumbai, Pune and Banglore. Nepal will kick off its campaign taking on Australia on January 31 and will face New Zealand on February in its league match.
CABN had organized training camp in Pokhara under Blind Cricket World Cup winning Indian coach Suju Kumar last year gathering 30 players from the different part of the nation. And the final 14 players of the squad were selected from that pool of 35 players on the basis of the performances during the selection matches held from December 6 to 11, 2016 at Pulchowk Engineering College’s ground in Lalitpur.
