Pakistan's Cricketers Rule the Blind Game By NICOLAS BRULLIARD LAHORE, Pakistan –Abdul Razzaq is one of the most decorated players in international cricket. When he's been captain, his team hasn't lost a tournament since 2002. He is a two-time world champion and holds several world records in the game. And he's never seen cricket being played.
[iblind12014] Members of Pakistan's blind cricket team practiced on the eve of their anticipated match against India in Lahore. Mr. Razzaq, who has been visually impaired since birth, is the captain of his nation's blind cricket team. His squad, ranked No. 1 in the world, faced second-ranked India last month in a series of matches in Lahore and Islamabad in a rare confrontation at the top of the sport. The two teams had not met since Pakistan topped India in the World Cup of blind cricket five years ago. Blind cricketers rely on audio cues to throw, hit and dive for the ball with uncanny precision. Players count on the voices of their teammates to orient themselves on the field, and bowlers are required to vocally warn batsmen when they're about to pitch the ball. Blind cricket uses a bearings-filled plastic ball that rattles like a maraca, allowing players to locate it as it bounces on the ground. "The listening of the blind person should be very good because 70% of the performance depends on listening skills," Mr. Razzaq said. "But your body should also be like a sportsman's body." Despite being the world's sixth most populous nation, Pakistan hardly qualifies as an athletic powerhouse. The country counts just 10 Olympic medals – almost all of them in field hockey. Its domination of squash is a thing of the past, and the successes of its sighted cricket team have been overshadowed recently by a match-fixing scandal. But when it comes to blind cricket, Pakistan is the undisputed king. After finishing runner-up in the first World Cup in 1998, Pakistan won the next two including the last one in 2006. Since then, the Pakistanis have thumped every team that crossed their path. Most blind cricket connoisseurs inside and outside Pakistan attribute the country's success to its strong infrastructure. The Pakistan Blind Cricket Council, whose motto is "We are blind, but we are playing with visionary spirit," organizes several national tournaments a year, and players on the international squad are semi-professionals who receive a monthly stipend of $90 to $130. Blind cricket traces its origins to the 1920s in Australia when blind people listening to a cricket series on the radio decided to give it a go. The game was introduced to Pakistan in the 1960s when it was played with a ball made of wicker filled with bottle caps. An experiment in the 1970s with metal balls was short-lived. "We made metal balls with steel, but it was very dangerous," said Syed Sultan Shah, the chairman of Pakistan's blind cricket council. "There were many injuries." There are a few minor adjustments to the rules, mostly around bowling, which has to be done underarm, for instance. The result is a fluid game where the trick for the batsman is to send the ball flying to make it harder for the opposing team's fielders. "It is difficult to catch the ball, because when the ball is in the air there is no sound available," said Mohammed Jafar Iqbal, a newcomer on the Indian team. Blind cricket has avoided the kind of corruption that plagues the sighted game, most notably with the recent jailing in the U.K. of three Pakistani cricketers. They were found guilty in a British court of corruption charges relating to attempting to fix a 2010 match against England. Still, blind cricket hasn't completely steered clear of controversy. [SB10001424052970204770404577083381154485826] Nicolas Brulliard Pakistan blind cricket batsman Masood Jan prepares to hit the ball in their first match against India. Jan holds the record for the highest individual score in a World Cup match. Blind cricket players are classified into categories according to the severity of their disability. This matters because an 11-member team is required to count at least four players who have no sight at all, and the scores posted by those players count double. It turns out some blind players are not as blind as they say. "People do fake medical certificates, and it's a major challenge," said George Abraham, the Indian founding chairman of the World Blind Cricket Council, in a telephone interview. "It's like doping at the Olympics." The issue peaked in 2008 during England's tour of Australia when one of the blind English players was deemed suspiciously adept by an Australian fan. England denied that anything was amiss, but the affair has not been forgotten in Australia. "It has been an issue," said Graham Coulton, the former manager of Australia's blind cricket team, said in a telephone interview from Perth, Australia. "Some countries don't think so, but Australia does. We're hoping England will do, too." In the wake of the Australia-England dispute, cricket authorities who govern the game decided to require completely blind players to wear black-out glasses during play. Pakistan's biggest issue has been finding opponents to play. The last World Cup, originally scheduled for this year, was scuttled for lack of funds, and Pakistani cricketers were denied visas to England on concerns that the players would bolt once they stepped on English soil – a claim Pakistan deemed ridiculous. Also, teams haven't exactly been lining up to come to Pakistan. Since a March 2009 armed attack on the Sri Lankan sighted cricket team during a visit to Lahore, only Nepal's blind cricketers have dared make the trip. So it was with much anticipation that Pakistan prepared to welcome India recently. Mr. Razzaq said he was confident but warned his teammates of India's "slim and fast" players. He also donned another player's jersey for the final practice to hide his identity and confuse any Indian spies. "Everything is possible here," he chuckled. Indian coach Ramakant Satam said that Pakistani officials "welcomed us very warmly" but the competition was hot as the series opened in Lahore. At one of the eastern Pakistani city's historic cricket grounds, hundreds of spectators congregated around the oval field. The Pakistani and Indian teams sported green and sky-blue outfits, respectively, but most of those in attendance – bused in from the region's blind schools – listened rather than watched. With Pakistan batting first, India kept the hosts' score low through efficient bowling and fielding – including a rare aerial catch by jubilant Indian captain Shekhar Naik. Mr. Shah, the head of Pakistan's blind cricket council, followed the match anxiously on the sidelines. "This is not a good score," he said of Pakistan's performance. After a mandatory cup of sugary and milky tea at halftime, Pakistan's players did an even better job at containing their opponents' offense and won the match with a comfortable margin. Pakistan easily won the six-game series five to one, registering only one defeat over a disputed interpretation of the rules. Mr. Razzaq declared himself satisfied that Pakistan had once again demonstrated its superiority despite stronger-than-usual opposition. He is planning to retire following the next World Cup in December 2012 in Bangalore, India, where he once again predicts Pakistan will emerge triumphant. "Of course, winning is a good habit," he said with a smile. Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. 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