{"id":28461,"date":"2025-11-22T12:04:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=28461"},"modified":"2025-11-22T12:04:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:04:06","slug":"curiosity-cultivates-change-in-attitudes-at-t20-world-cup-for-blind-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=28461","title":{"rendered":"Curiosity cultivates change in attitudes at T20 World Cup for blind women"},"content":{"rendered":"
On a lush cricket ground outside Colombo the sharp jingling of a ball cuts through the afternoon air. Every rattle is a pushback against the stigma of disability.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka and India are co-hosting the first T20 World Cup for visually impaired women.<\/p>\n

The semi-finals are on Saturday between India and Australia and Pakistan and Nepal, followed by the final on Sunday.<\/p>\n

India manager Shika Shetty told AFP that the sport has transformed lives and helped change attitudes.<\/p>\n

“I think this (world cup) is one of the biggest opportunities for our visually impaired girls,” said Shetty, who is not blind.<\/p>\n

India captain T.C. Deepika recalled the disbelief she faced when she first picked up the bat.<\/p>\n

“People were saying, ‘How do they do it? They must be lying,'” she said in a video posted by the Cricket Association for the Blind in India.<\/p>\n

“(Later) they realised I can do something. People began to see that I have ability,” Deepika added.<\/p>\n

Playing by the ear\u00a0<\/p>\n

While able-bodied cricket requires players to keep an eye on the ball at all times, blind players must have sharp ears.<\/p>\n

The white plastic ball, the size of a tennis ball, is packed with ball bearings that rattle as it rolls.<\/p>\n

The bowler must ask the striker if he or she is ready and then yell “play” as the jingling ball is delivered underarm with at least one bounce.<\/p>\n

Like a regular cricket match, each side has 11 players, but at least four must be totally blind. They are required to wear blindfolds for fairness.<\/p>\n

Fielders clap once to reveal their positions.<\/p>\n

Others are partially sighted, classified by how far they can see — two metres for B2 players, six for B3.<\/p>\n

Each team can have up to eight B1, or totally blind, players. Any run scored by a B1 player is counted as two.<\/p>\n

‘Liberating’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chaminda Karunaratne says cricket has been both a refuge and a way to prove that blindness cannot impede his sporting ambitions.<\/p>\n

The blind 40-year-old Sri Lankan school teacher has represented his country in international tournaments and now wants women to share that space.<\/p>\n

“Cricket has done wonders, especially for my mental health,” Karunaratne said as the Indian and Pakistan women’s teams battled it out on the ground.<\/p>\n

“When you get into a sport like this it boosts your self-confidence, you can move more freely and you tend to take part in community activities,” he said.<\/p>\n

“That is liberating.”<\/p>\n

Karunaratne, a key member of the Sri Lanka Cricket Association for the Visually Handicapped, added: “I appeal to parents to send their blind girls to take up cricket. It is an opportunity to interact with others.”<\/p>\n

“You can show that you are not helpless, not dependent,” he said.<\/p>\n

Association president Sudesh Tharanga admitted forming a women’s team had been a challenge, although nearly a million Sri Lankans are estimated to have some form of visual impediment.<\/p>\n

“We started assembling a team only after we were asked in September if we could co-host the T20 tournament in November,” Tharanga told AFP.<\/p>\n

Despite limited preparations Sri Lanka managed to field one of the tournament’s youngest squads.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a lush cricket ground outside Colombo the sharp jingling of a ball cuts through the afternoon air. Every rattle is a pushback against the stigma of disability. Sri Lanka and India are co-hosting the first T20 World Cup for visually impaired women. The semi-finals are on Saturday between India and Australia and Pakistan and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}