Blind cricketers gear up for WC

POKHARA, June 10: Visually impaired cricketers of Nepal are gearing up for international tournaments. Cricket Association of the Blind, Nepal (CABN) is organizing the Third Regional Blind Cricket Tournament in Pokhara from Friday to select players for international events.



Blind cricketers from Kaski and Lumbini will compete in the three-day event and the best 14 will get an opportunity to participate in the Fourth Blind Cricket World Cup Tournament to be held in South Africa in 2012.[break]



The selected players will also participate in the T20 International Blind Cricket Tournament scheduled to be held in Bangalore, India in December later this year.



The Lumbini team led by captain Khimanand Gaire arrived in Pokhara Thursday for the tournament. Lumbini will take on Kaski, headed by Arpan Koirala, at Pokhara Development Training Center -- the city´s only cricket pitch -- in the first match on Friday. The winning team will bag a purse of Rs 15,000.



CABN Pokhara´s acting president Samrat Gautam said that they have been organizing such tournaments to promote the game. Blind cricket tournament was initiated in Nepal about four years ago. There are a total of 300 male and 90 female blind cricketers.



“The district committee of our association used to help the players to conduct the games earlier, but now they have become able to conduct the game on their own,” said Pawan Ghimire, chairman of CABN.

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