By Bipin Dani
MUMBAI, India (TheSportsNEXT) December 2, 2012: The Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI), which is hosting the first ever Twenty20 World Cup for the blind people is still short of rupees 1.5 crore for the mega event. This was revealed by Mr. Nagesh S, the president of the Twenty20 committee.
Speaking exclusively over his mobile from Bangalore, he said, "The total budget for the T20 World Cup is Rs6 crore and we could manage balance in cash and kind. We have made several requests to the Indian cricket board, but so far they have not responded".
"The BCCI is the richest governing body and we need their support", the general secretary, G. K. Mahantesh said.
Interestingly, Yuvraj Singh and Harbhajan Singh, the members of the present Team India have been waiting for the No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the BCCI to support the event.
"We met these players in Sri Lanka during the last ICC World Twenty20 and sought their support", the secretary added.
"Saurav Ganguly has been chosen as Brass Ambassador for the tournament and former players, like Syed Kirmani and B. S. Chandrasekhar have been helping us to host the event successfully", he added.
Chandra, the polio-affected Indian player has always been helping for the noble cause and support from Yuvi, who has recovered from recent cancer illness, can boost the players tempo, the organisers felt.
"Eight foreign teams (Australia, South Africa, Bangaldesh, Sri Lanka, England, West Indies, Pakistan and Nepal) have arrived in India for the 13-day tournament", Shekar Naik, the captain of the Indian blind team said. "Only the two umpires having 100 % vision will be on field of play", the captain, who is classified in B3 category (partial vision upto 6 meters), added.
"Each team will have four players, totally blind (B1 category), 3 players partial (B2 cateogy vision upto 3 meters) and 4 players (B3) cateogy will be allowed on the field of play", he explained.
"The totally blind players will be assisted by the partially visioned players as runners while batting".
Four Indian umpires and four foreign umpires will officiate in the tournament.
"We want to show to the world that we too can play the game", the captain signed off.
The blind cricket associations from Australia, England, South Africa and possibly Pakistan are affiliated with their national cricket boards, sadly, the BCCI is yet to recognise it.
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