World T20 is a 'Major step forward for Disability Cricket'

England’s Visually Impaired team are in preparing for the first ever Twenty20 World Cup, which will feature eight teams and run from December 2 to 13 in India. England are preparing at Edgbaston before flying out to Bangalore on November 26.

The team, which was founded in 2007, has their own head coach and physiotherapist and a squad of 16 has been selected, captained by Warwickshire’s Luke Sugg and featuring James Millard, a 16-year-old from Sussex who will hope to make his debut at the World Cup.

Visually impaired cricket has specifications on the number of players from each sight category in each team. Each player is graded as a B1, B2 or B3 player which refers to the level of vision they have. Four B1 players (players who are completely blind and all wear black-out glasses) must be in the starting 11 with the remaining seven players from the B2 (moderately affected vision) or B3 (lesser affected vision) category.

“The T20 World Cup marks a huge step forwards in disability cricket,” Ian Martin, ECB head of disability cricket, said. “International boards and disability sport charities around the world have united to make this competition possible. We thank the Cricket Association for the Blind in India for hosting this ground-breaking event and hope it is the first of many. All the players and support staff have worked extremely hard to prepare and I wish them all every success.”