With the inauguration of the 22nd National Cricket Tournament for the blind at Central Civil Services Cultural and Sports Ground, Chanakyapuri, the Cricket Association for the Blind (CABI) got another boost on Thursday as the Pakistan Government cleared the Pakistan blind team to travel to India for the Asia Cup in January.

The tournament organised by the CABI follows the league format, followed by semi-finals and a Final. On the first day which saw all the eight teams in action, Gujarat outplayed Bengal in all three departments winning the match by a huge margin of 118 runs.

In another one-sided affair, Haryana chased down 175 runs in just 17.3 overs against Odisha. The third match saw Andhra Pradesh comprehensively defeat Uttar Pradesh by 47 runs. But the best was kept for the last. In the last match of the day, Karnataka riding on Sunil’s incredible 195 in just 71 balls, put up a mammoth total of 334 runs for loss of three wickets. Rajasthan failed to come even close to the target and eventually lost match by 198 runs.

The 15-match tournament which involves players from eight teams, two from each zone, will also be the criteria for selection of a 17-member Indian team for the Asia Cup T20 which is scheduled for January 16 and culminates on Jan 24, 2016 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. Currently India are the defending champions of both the 50-over and the 20-over format.

Earlier in the day Ananth Kumar, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers, declared the tournament open in the presence of the Chief Guest Shri Oscar Fernandes, Former Minister and General Secretary of AICC.

Source: http://www.dailypioneer.com/sports/pak-blind-cricketers-cleared-for-india.html