‘Hosting Blind Cricket WC a huge honour’: Nepal, BD teams arrive for blind cricket WC

LAHORE: Nepal and Bangladesh blind cricket teams reached the city to figure in fifth Blind Cricket World Cup going to be held from January 7-21, simultaneously in Pakistan and UAE.

Co-hosts Pakistan, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Australia and Bangladesh will compete in the round robin format tournament. The Nepali team is taking part in the limited overs World Cup for the first time. They had earlier featured in the Twenty20 Blind World Cup.

Pakistan will take on Bangladesh in the opening match of the event at the Gaddafi Stadium. Kirtan Shrestha Duwal will lead the Nepali team in the World Cup, while Bikram Bahadur Rana is the vice-captain. Sunil Subedi Chhetri, Naresh Chaudhary, Durga Dutta Paudel, Bharat Chaulagain, Surya Prasad Bhattarai, Sunil Rana, Khimananda Gaire, Badri Chaulagain, Padam Bahadur Badela, Ramesh Bahadur Baniya, Bharat Thapa and Sunil Thapa Magar are the other players in the team.

Meanwhile Secretary Sports Punjab Aamir Jan said the upcoming Blind Cricket World Cup is a huge distinction for Pakistan. The opening match of Blind Cricket World Cup will be played between Pakistan and Bangladesh at Gaddafi Stadium on January 8. In his statement, on Friday, Secretary Sports Punjab Aamir Jan said Pakistan cricket enthusiasts will enjoy thrilling encounters of Blind Cricket World Cup at their own grounds after a long time. “Punjab govt will provide full support for the holding of mega event,” he added.

He welcomed all the participating teams. “The guest teams will see home-like atmosphere in Pakistan. Pakistan hosted international teams - World XI, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe cricket teams in recent past quite successfully and we are quite confident that the Blind World Cup will also be a big success under the auspices of Punjab govt,” he expressed his hope.