Reforms in Indian cricket a boost for differently-abled players, says Wadekar

Ajit Wadekar, the former India captain, hoped that the implementation of the Supreme Court-ordered reforms in Indian cricket would lead to a much-needed fillip for the differently-abled cricketers in India.

Ajit Wadekar says that there have been a lot of a lot of promises, but things haven't moved beyond that for the physically challenged cricketers

Ajit Wadekar, the former India captain, hoped that the implementation of the Supreme Court-ordered reforms in Indian cricket would lead to a much-needed fillip for the differently-abled cricketers in India.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has not taken the physically handicapped or visually impaired cricket associations under its wings. Only after it got a whiff of not being left with a choice but to recognise them did the BCCI announce setting aside a corpus for differently-abled cricketers. However, there has been no progress on that front.

“There have been a lot of a lot of promises, but things haven't moved beyond that,” said Wadekar, the president of the All India Cricket Association for the Physically Challenged (AICAPC), while announcing the LIC Trophy, seventh Inter-zonal T20 tournament for the physically challenged. The tournament will be played in Mumbai from March 30 to April 1.

While Wadekar didn’t elaborate, T.P. Mirajkar, secretary of AICAPC, said efforts of getting the BCCI recognition have been stalled for various reasons. “We met Shashank Manohar when he was the president and he told us to join hands with a couple of other organisations who also run activities for physically challenged cricketers. All of us met in Mumbai, passed a resolution and just when we submitted it to the BCCI, he (Manohar) resigned and went to ICC,” said Mirajkar.

The three-day tournament will see five zonal teams vying for the national championship in a round-robin league.