MECON CMD, Atul Bhatt today inaugurated the IndusInd Bank Nagesh National Cricket Tournament for Blind 2018 – 2019 in the presence of Director (Technical), MECON P K Sarangi. Bhatt opened the occasion with a welcome greeting to all the players from Tripura, Tamil Nadu , Gujarat and Jharkhand, the organisers from Cricket Association for the Blind, National referee and International Delegate from Holland.

The game started by the inaugural striking of the ball by Bhatt wearing a complete opaque glass over his eyes whereas Sarangi overtook the role of the bowler. Bhatt expressed his difficulty in facing the cricket ball with his eyes closed.  Bhatt greeted each players from the four states and expressed that this special game will give a message not only to Jharkhand but at National level, and will boost morale of sports persons from the physically challenged groups Bhatt showed his pleasure in conducting the tournament in MECON Stadium .He wished that this will create a platform which will bring confidence and dignity in the life of visually impaired cricketers.

Sarangi expressed his pleasure to be part of this tournament and also said that MECON is providing support to the nearby society for physically challenged groups and specifically mentioned about the Blind school of St Michael’s and Brajkishore .

Vivek Kr. Singh, President CABJ and C Mondal , Secretary – East Zone explained the rules and details of this tournament – a three month event, where twenty three (23) States will participate and will play T20 matches with the teams lined-up in four pools for the league matches, followed by quarterfinal, semi-final and final championship matches. A total of twelve schedule venues (in 12 states) will have five league matches to complete sixty games in the tournament. The first year of this tournament is launched in memory of Late. SP Nagesh, who was a role model sports-person despite his poor vision, bringing change in the lives of people with disability.
Three kind of players B1- completely blind, B2 – limited vision of two to four feet and B3 - partial vision in the ratio of 4:3:4 respectively comprises a typical team of total eleven players.

The four States represented in MECON Stadium, Shyamali from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Jharkhand are grouped in Pool C of the tournament. Shri Golu Kumar from St Micahel’s Blind school represented India and also representing here from Jharkhand. All Sports lovers from MECON and nearby locality joined this inaugural function for encouraging the visually challenged players.
Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2018/state-editions/national-cricket-tourne...