Spinning their hopes

Wheelchair cricket gathers pace in Pakistan.

KARACHI:

Sport is not always about physical strength. Sometimes, you need strong spirit too.

For Agha Hasnain Raza, a 32-year-old, wheelchair is not an excuse. He was named man of the tournament after scoring 120 runs in the recently-concluded All Pakistan Wheelchair Cricket Tournament that took place in Karachi where 108 cricketers gathered from across the country to prove that wheelchair cricket needs its own voice.

Wheelchair cricket, according to Raza who represented Lahore, has evolved tremendously in the last five years. The members of the Disable Welfare Association had started playing it according to the International Cricket Council rules for people with disabilities and, after a seven-year wait, the association has shortlisted 20 players for the national team that will be representing Pakistan on international level.

“This is the second year that we gathered in Karachi and played the national tournament,” Raza told The Express Tribune. “The success of the tournament has assured us that our aim of forming a national side is achievable and that the Pakistan Cricket Board should seriously consider our request to acknowledge us so that we can be part of the mainstream cricket community.”

Bad news there as the Pakistan Disables Association President Jawed Rais thinks that mainstream cricket is not ready to accept the wheelchair polluting their game. Rais, who also organised the tournament, said that the biggest hurdle for them is to find a place to play.

While many take their cricket as recreational activity, the disabled community has put a lot of effort in finding the 20 players for the national squad.

“Playing cricket and dreaming of having a career in it is one of the things that keeps us alive,” explained Rais. “Just staying physically fit and maintaining our weight is a challenge in itself when you are on a wheel chair.

“But wheelchair is our strength and not a disability. We design them in our workshops, copying the ones that are used in by the US Paralympics Society only to make sure that we are as good as them, if not better. But, at times, our effort is mocked by people when they only consider the maintenance of their pitches instead of the message we are trying to convey.”

While it is the passion for cricket that drives Rais, Abbas Mumtaz, a 25-year-old bowler, is a student by day and works at night believing that it is his disability that got him into the national squad otherwise he would have never gotten a chance to play cricket for Pakistan.

Prove you’re worth it: PCB

While the wheelchair cricketers have the community’s support, the PCB feels that it is not a feasible idea since the board spends a lot of money on maintaining their pitches and a wheelchair match would ruin it all.

“They need to make a mark first,” said a board’s spokesperson. “We can explore the idea but for now they need to prove their place in the international circuit. They can still participate in those tournaments without their affiliation with the PCB.”



Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2011.