Pakistan gamers (proper) shake palms with the Indians on the finish of the Girls’s Blind Twenty20 World Cup 2025 match in Katunayake, Sri Lanka, November 16, 2025. — AFP
Blind ladies from India and Pakistan brushed apart political tensions on Sunday, shaking palms in impartial Sri Lanka at a cricket event for the visually impaired.
At what organisers describe because the world’s first blind ladies’s T20 event, gamers from the 2 South Asian neighbours confirmed that they had sporting imaginative and prescient even when they lacked sight — not like their common nationwide groups.
Tensions on and off the sector have been excessive since a lethal army conflict between the nuclear-armed neighbours in Could.
India’s males refused to shake palms with their Pakistani opponents on the Asia Cup in September — a controversial and extensively condemned conduct, since when neither aspect has proven indicators of constructing up.
That animosity unfold to the ladies’s sides who declined any greeting on the latest T20 World Cup and likewise to Sunday’s males’s Rising Stars Asia Cup tie in Doha.
India’s blind gamers have been anticipated to reflect the conduct of their sighted groups when there was no handshake after the toss, however on the finish of the match each side warmly greeted one another.
The 2 sides, who travelled to the venue collectively in the identical bus, not solely shook palms but in addition exchanged beneficiant compliments.
India gained by eight wickets in simply 10.2 overs after Pakistan have been restricted to 135 for eight of their 20 overs on the Free Commerce Zone grounds in Katunayake, 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Colombo.
Pakistan skipper Nimra Rafique congratulated India on their complete victory, whereas her Indian counterpart TC Deepika mentioned Pakistan had performed nicely.
The groups applauded each other loudly however neither set of gamers was permitted to speak to the press.
‘Greatest alternative’
There have been hardly any spectators however the match was proven stay on Sri Lanka’s nationwide tv, Rupavahini. Blind Sri Lankan officers internet hosting the event “watched” the match on YouTube by listening to the commentary.
Indian workforce supervisor Shika Shetty instructed AFP earlier than the match that the event was opening up alternatives for extra ladies.
“This is the first-ever World Cup for blind women… I think this is one of the biggest opportunities for our entire visually impaired girls,” mentioned Shetty, who will not be blind.
“Maybe many girls with disabilities will come out from their villages. Maybe they will come for studies, maybe they will come for the sport. So it is helpful for other girls too.”
Blind cricket depends on a pointy ear, as gamers should detect a white plastic ball — the dimensions of a tennis ball — crammed with ball bearings that rattle because it strikes.
Pakistan coach Tahir Mehmood Butt, additionally talking earlier than the sport, mentioned the launch of ladies’s blind cricket had created new alternatives for younger gamers in Pakistan.
“For the totally blind, if they have good hearing, they can become good cricketers,” Tahir instructed AFP.
Every workforce should area at the least 4 fully blind gamers, three who can see as much as two metres, and 4 partially sighted gamers capable of see as much as about six metres.
Completely blind batters might have {a partially} sighted runner. Bowling is underarm, not like within the conventional sport.
4 different nations — Australia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and the US — are competing within the event which started in India and moved to Sri Lanka for the ultimate phases. The ultimate is scheduled for subsequent Sunday in Colombo.
