Cuttack/Bhubaneswar
This is a dream come true. The dream that the Cricket Association for the Visually Impaired (CAVI), Odisha, has been dreaming for years has now crystallized into a reality, when its four tribal girls were slotted into the 17-member first-ever Indian women’s cricket team for the blind.
The four tribal cricketers are now waiting in the wings to juggle out magic in the forthcoming bilateral battle between the bat and the ball at the T-20 series in Nepal, the first such jamboree outside national frontiers. The series is scheduled from April 25-30.
The four all-rounders Basanti Hansda, Padmini Tudu, Phula Soren and Jhilli Birua, who have braced up to prove their mettle in Nepal’s Kathmandu and Pokhara, will leave for Gurgaon for their six-day prior practice from April 17.
The CAVI is keeping its fingers crossed to see their deftness at the six-day bilateral gentleman’s game set to take off from April 25 in the Himalayan land.
“Since cricket of the visually impaired shaped up in Odisha in 2017, we have been cherishing an ambition that our players would one day show up at international contests. Four girls’ place in the national team is the first step forward in this direction,” says CAVI president Md. Jafar Iqbal.
However, the girls of Odisha team aced the test at three National T20 Cricket Tournaments before making their toehold in the Indian team.
“Though their performance at the three earlier tourneys was assessed for their inclusion, the third played in Bengaluru in January this year was the immediate yardstick,” says Debashish Jena, the State-level coach for the visually impaired cricketers.
“Odisha trounced rival Karnataka in the finals of the third national tourney by eight wickets to clinch championship.”
Captain Phula Soren and vice-captain Basanti Hansda of Odisha team, who belong to Santhal tribe, scored 34 and 25 runs respectively at the finals. “Basanti, who brilliantly effected two run-outs, became the player of the match, and we won by bowling only 12.2 overs,” Phula tells The Indian Tribal.
Phula and Basanti are students of Bhubaneswar-based Ramadevi Women’s University and belong to Mayurbhanj and Balasore respectively. On the other hand, Munda girl Jhilli, a hard-hitting batter, hails from Keonjhar and took up the sport after joining Betra Blind School in 2016.
Exuding confidence and satisfaction, 13-year-old Santhali Padmini Tudu, says “I am happy now, just as I was after my inclusion last year into the national team to play as a striker at First India International Blind Football Tournament in Kochi, Kerala,” she says.
When asked about her performance at third national tournament in Bengaluru, Padmini-a class ninth student of the School for the Blind at Ranipatna in Balasore—falters, for she fails to recollect.
However, Sukhram Majhi, who had coached the four before they came under the wings of Debashish says. “Padmini bowled three overs including one maiden. She conceded 16 runs and claimed one wicket.”
Sukhram hopes that the four will be again in the national team that will participate in an International T20 likely to be organized in August. However, Secretary of the Cricket Association for the Blind in India and Chairman of its Selection Committee E John David says, “It is too early to predict.”
