Cricket Association for Blind in India (CABI) is planning to introduce a T20 tournament like Indian Premier League (IPL) for India’s blind cricket team in a bid to give them the opportunity to express their talent more, as well as, lift up their “deserving” living standard through it.
Notably, Indian blind team is one of the most successful teams across the globe, as they have achieved a lot of laurels for the country, winning two Blind T20 World Cup titles in 2012 and 2017, Blind T20 Asia Cup 2015, as well as, have done extremely well in the 40 Over World Cup history.
Despite this success story, the players have not got the recognition that they deserve. They are not even given healthy salaries, receiving 10,000 per month. Even, Indian Cricket Board (BCCI) is also not paying too much attention to them to provide the affiliation. However, these all things have not changed the enthusiasm of the blind cricketers for playing for the country.
In such circumstances, CABI’s this initiative would certainly change the life of the specially-abled players, who are much-deserved attention from TV and fans like other players in the country have.
It is also being said that the IPL co-owners Shah Rukh Khan of Kolkata Knight Riders and Preity Zinta of Kings XI Punjab have shown their interest to buy a team in the blind cricket league.
As per Indian Express, the general secretary of CABI John David said, “We have had a talk with SRK and he showed his interest in the league.”
Meanwhile, CABI is planning to make an 8-10 franchisee league which will be the IPL-style league and it will run between November-December this year.
As per reports in Times of India, David said, “There will be around 40 league matches along with three knock-out games over the 25-day event. There could be two teams from one state also and depending on the response from the corporate, CABI would plan the league accordingly. We are trying to reach out to all the promoters of IPL as well to make it a success.”
It is also learned that the base price of the cricketers would be minimum Rs 50,000 in the tournament. Mr. David further added, “Four to five cricketers from the current Indian team are working while two to three are students. But not all have jobs. This tournament will enable them to get some income and I am sure the corporate will come forward because our Indian cricketers are world champions.”
He signed off by saying, “Cricketers from all major Test playing nations would be available to play the blind version of IPL T20, except Zimbabwe. We are yet to come out with the name of the tournament, but we hope to do so very soon.”
