Indian blind team to tour Pakistan

Visually impaired Indian cricketer Ganesh (R) plays a shot during their third and final blind cricket one-day international match between Pakistan and India in Islamabad on November 26, 2011. The body running cricket for the blind in Pakistan said Monday it has persuaded its counterparts in India to come on tour in February next year. (AFP/File)

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) – The body running cricket for the blind in Pakistan said Monday it has persuaded its counterparts in India to come on tour in February next year.

The trip would be the Indian blind team's third tour to their arch-rivals, the last coming in December 2011 when they lost both the one-day and Twenty20 series.

"We have convinced India to send their blind team to Pakistan for a three one-day and three Twenty20 international tour next February," Syed Sultan Shah, president of the Pakistan Blind Cricket Association, told AFP.

The matches will be played in Lahore, Faisalabad and Islamabad, Shah said.

"They were reluctant to send their team owing to security reasons but we managed to convince them because blind cricket is all about peace and harmony and there are no fears on holding such a series," said Shah.

The ball used in blind cricket is bigger, with ball bearings inside it so the batsman can hear it coming.

Of the 11 players in each team four must be totally blind, four partially blind and three partially sighted.

Regular international cricket has been suspended in Pakistan since militants attacked the Sri Lankan team bus during the Lahore Test match in March 2009.

Shah, also president of World Blind Council, said India wants to host the Asia Cup for blind teams next year.

Pakistan's blind team toured India last year to feature in the Blind World Twenty20 held in Bangalore. India beat Pakistan to lift the trophy.

India and Pakistan have not played a full bilateral series since the 2008 Mumbai attacks, though Pakistan did visit for a short series in December-January.