England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) secretary Richard Gould has written to BCCI secretary Jay Shah, proposing to bring two national disability teams to promote the sport among those communities.
ECB CEO writes to BCCI’s Jay Shah Proposing Own National Disability Teams
Richard Gould has reached out to BCCI Secretary Jay Shah with a proposal to promote cricket among individuals with disabilities in India.
The proposal elaborates on bringing two teams – one for the visually challenged and one for the physically challenged, intellectually challenged, and hearing impaired) teams.
The initiative is to help popularize the sport among these communities in India. Currently, the Differently Abled Cricket Council of India operates as a sub-committee of the BCCI.
However, the Indian board does not independently organize cricket tournaments for differently-abled cricketers. It is expected Gould and Shah will engage in discussions on the proposal at the upcoming ICC Annual Conference in Colombo.
Gould will be participating in the Chief Executives Meet during the conference, providing an opportunity for the two officials to further explore the potential of this initiative and its implementation in India.
“We propose boards operate two international teams — a blind XI as a standalone format and then a pan-disability format with squads consisting of deaf, intellectually impaired, and physically disabled cricketers. We would be keen and willing to host the inaugural pan-disability tournament involving our five nations in 2025. The ICC is keen to show collective support for this approach to ensure any steps are member-driven,” said Gould in a letter.
“There are many different codes of disability cricket — blind, deaf, intellectual impairment, and physical disability and there has been widespread lack of coordination and strategy that sits across all four.
“This has not been an area of the sport we have collectively prioritized and although financial restraints are felt as prevalently now as ever, now is the time for us to come together to turbocharge the disability game,” Gould further wrote.
Currently, there are 1.3 billion people with various disabilities living globally and Gould believes that it is a fresh market that needs to be reached. Ravi Chauhan, the DCCI boss will be in Sri Lanka to take part in the discussions as he has been important role between his committee and BCCI.
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