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 Nepal, followed by the final on Sunday.
India manager Shika Shetty told AFP that the sport has transformed lives and helped change attitudes.
“I think this (world cup) is one of the biggest opportunities for our visually impaired girls,” said Shetty, who is not blind.
India captain T.C. Deepika recalled the disbelief she faced when she first picked up the bat.
“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.
“(Later) they realised I can do something. People began to see that I have ability,” Deepika added.
– Playing by the ear –
While able-bodied cricket requires players to keep an eye on the ball at all times, blind players must have sharp ears.
The white plastic ball, the size of a tennis ball, is packed with ball bearings that rattle as it rolls.
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.
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.
Fielders clap once to reveal their positions.
Others are partially sighted, classified by how far they can see — two metres for B2 players, six for B3.
Each team can have up to eight B1, or totally blind, players. Any run scored by a B1 player is counted as two.
– ‘Liberating’ –
Chaminda Karunaratne says cricket has been both a refuge and a way to prove that blindness cannot impede his sporting ambitions.
The blind 40-year-old Sri Lankan school teacher has represented his country in international tournaments and now wants women to share that space.
“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.
“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.
“That is liberating.”
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.”
“You can show that you are not helpless, not dependent,” he said.
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.
“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.
Despite limited preparations Sri Lanka managed to field one of the tournament’s youngest squads.
aj/abh/pst/ane