Physically challenged cricketers' World Cup hopes hang in balance with BCCI

India's physically challenged cricketer Gurudas Raut bowls against Afghanistan in New Delhi last year. Pic/PCCAI

While India's blind cricketers have had the opportunity to play in five World Cups (50-50 and T20), the physically challenged players of the country could be robbed of a chance to represent the nation in the maiden World Championship to be held next year in England. The fate of physically challenged cricketers participating in the World Cup which will be hosted by the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) between July 16 and 31, 2019, hangs on the affiliation with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

In an email to BCCI, the All India Cricket Association for the Physically Challenged (AICAPC) and the Physically Challenged Cricket Association of India (PCCAI), Ian Martin, ECB's head of disability cricket, wrote: "The entry requirement is that each team is a representative of their national cricket board and I will be seeking confirmation of this before the end of 2018." On February 9, this email was also sent to the heads of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh cricket boards, seeking their confirmation.

No disability wing
Barring BCCI, the other three cricket boards have a wing for disability cricket. The BCCI will have time till the end of this year to confirm India's participation in the World Cup. The World Cup for the physically challenged will begin a couple of days after the ICC 2019 World Cup final is held on July 14. The BCCI, under Shashank Manohar's presidentship, had a few meetings with the physically challenged cricket associations to come under one umbrella before taking disability cricket under its wing.

But since Manohar quit the BCCI and took on the ICC chairman's post, there hasn't been any concrete progress. The Justice Lodha Committee report accepted by the Supreme Court had a mention of promoting disability cricket.
Former India skipper Ajit Wadekar, who is president of the AICAPC, will approach the SC-appointed Committee Of Administrators (COA) to initiate the affiliation process. "I will be meeting the COA and will request the panel to expedite the affiliation process, but it is sad that despite doing so much for Indian cricket, I still have to plead to the Board to recognise disability cricket.

"It will be an ultimate blow for India's talented physically challenged cricketers if they miss out on an opportunity to play the World Cup. I don't understand what's stopping the BCCI from recognising disabled cricket. I have pleaded enough now," Wadekar told mid-day yesterday, hours after arriving from Kolhapur where a district tournament for the physically challenged was held.

High hopes
Meanwhile, PCCAI, has already approached the BCCI with their plea. "We have been constantly following up with the COA and the BCCI to recognise physically challenged cricketers. COA chief Vinod Rai has assured me to look into the issue, but there hasn't been much progress. "I am hopeful that something will materialise soon," said PCCAI secretary Ravi Chauhan from New Delhi.

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