BENGALURU: The Karnataka Deaf Cricket team won the VIII National T20 Cricket Championship for the Deaf held at Kadarpur, Haryana. Held from April 19 to 25, the Karnataka team in the Group B category, played 5 matches, finally badging as the winner of the championship. The championship was organised by the All-India Sports Council of the Deaf, New Delhi, in collaboration with the Haryana Sports Council of the Deaf.
The finale took place at Gurugram, Haryana on April 24. The final match was played between Karnataka and Punjab, in which Karnataka won by four runs. Karnataka, which batted first, scored 177 for seven wickets and Punjab, chasing the target, came close to victory, but fell short by five runs (173), losing seven wickets. Karnataka’s skipper Subramani Singh scored the maximum runs (45), followed by vice-captain Souban Armar scoring 34 runs. In his four-over spell, Subramani Singh conceded 27 runs and claimed 2 wickets.
The members of the cricket team, who are from different parts of Karnataka, would practice by themselves in different private coaching centres and come together to practice once every week on the BLC ground. “The private coaching is very expensive, I had to pay Rs 1,000 per day for my son’s practice sessions,” shared Shiva Kumar, father of Kushal JS, one of the players.
We worked very hard to win this title and we are very happy that our hard work finally paid off, shared the team members. The winning came at an expenditure of Rs 10,000 per player. The match along with travel, food, practice and other expenses is a huge amount of money, which often creates a financial struggle for the player and their families. “Poor people like us struggle financially,” shares Shiva Kumar. But I ignore it to see the happiness on my son’s face,” he adds.
“We wish the government could fund us with sufficient money for the games, as they are just like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma. They too play for their homeland, finally winning the championship,” Kumar concludes.