England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) CEO Richard Gould has proposed the establishment of two national disability cricket teams to Jay Shah, the secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The proposal aims to create teams for visually impaired cricket team players and a combined team for physically challenged, intellectually challenged, and hearing impaired players. This initiative is intended to promote the sport among these communities.
Currently, the Differently Abled Cricket Council of India (DCCI), a sub-committee of the BCCI, oversees disability cricket in India, but the BCCI does not independently organize tournaments. Gould will discuss this proposal at the ICC Annual Conference 2024 in Colombo during the Chief Executives Meeting.
Gould’s letter, also addressed to Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley, PCB COO Salman Naseer, and CSA CEO Phletsi Moseki, suggests that cricket boards operate two international teams: a standalone blind XI and a pan-disability cricket team consisting of deaf, intellectually impaired, and physically disabled cricketers. He expressed the ECB’s willingness to host the inaugural disability cricket tournament 2025 involving five nations, emphasizing the ICC’s support for a member-driven approach.
Gould highlighted the unstructured and unsupported nature of global disability cricket development, noting the lack of coordination and strategy across different disability codes. He called for collective prioritization and collaboration to enhance the disability game, despite financial constraints.
With 1.3 billion people living with various disabilities globally, Gould sees this as an untapped market. Ravi Chauhan, head of the DCCI, will join the discussions in Sri Lanka to bridge his committee and the BCCI.
This initiative aims to support inclusive cricket programs and promote cricket for disabled players, showing the importance of working together in disability cricket.
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