Pawan Ghimire, the chairman of Cricket Association of the Blind (CAB) Nepal, has been unanimously re-elected as the Asian Development Director of the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC).
According to CAB general secretary Sugam Bhattarai, Ghimire was elected during the WBCC Annual General Meeting and Convention in Banglore, India.
Ghimire was proposed by Pakistan and seconded by South Africa during the meeting for a two-year term.
“Ghimire will work for another two years under Sayed Sultan Shah, the newly elected WBCC chairman,” CAB release added.
Nepal was also chosen as the hosts of next WBCC Annual General Meeting in 2014.
Banglore is hosting the first ever World T20 Cup for Blind Cricket in which Nepal is also participating alongside eight other countries. The event begins on December 2 and ends on 13.
Besides Nepal, hosts India, Australia, Bangladesh, England, Pakistan, South Africa, West Indies and Sri Lanka is participating in the tournament, which is a joint effort by Bangalore-based NGO, Samarthanam and Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI).
As many as six partially impaired players and five totally blind players from each country would play the games, the CABI General Secretary, G K Mahantesh told reporters here.
Interestingly, Nepal, for the first time in the history of blind cricket, would field two women players in World Cup matches.
Former Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga will be present at the inaugural ceremony of the World Cup to be held at Kanteerava Stadium on December 1, Prasad said.
Nepal’s team include visually impaired sprinter/cricketer Bikram Bahadur Rana, who recently broke the national record in 100 m during the London Paralympics. He, like Ghimire himself, is an armyman who turned to blind cricket after losing his eyesight during the Maoist insurgency.