Bay of Plenty Blind Cricket gathers more momentum

FOCUSED: Bay of Plenty Blind Cricket president Stephanie Jobson batting against Manukau South. PHOTO/GEORGE NOVAK

A different version of cricket caught the attention of curious passersby at Te Wati Park in Maungatapu on Sunday.

Bay of Plenty Blind Cricket played their first home games in the Summer Series competition at Blake Park against Manukau South and Waikato.

The major adaptation is the ball, which is significantly larger than a standard cricket ball and filled with ball bearings.

The size allows partially sighted players to see the ball and the contents allow blind players to hear it.

Bowling is done underarm and runs are predominantly scored through the sweep shot.

Verbal signals are widely used both by umpires and players.

Bay of Plenty Blind Sports treasurer, Tony Wilson, says the sport overall is going "not to badly" but they do struggle for participation.

"We need to get people out of their houses and get them to commit to come down to practices and things like that. We do treat it as a social game rather than a competitive game because there are just not enough players.

"You probably have about 30 to 35 people nationwide that play cricket so not that many but it is growing. It has got potential."

Wilson says the support of Bay of Plenty Cricket has been tremendous.

"They have been absolutely fantastic. They have supplied us with so much stuff over the last year or so with venues and we had two official umpires from them who came along to umpire our games.

"This is the first time ever we have had official umpires at a game in the Summer Series."

■ Information: Bay of Plenty Blind Sportsclub Facebook site.