Visually impaired cricket players leave for Pakistan

THE Punjab team of the visually impaired cricketers left for Pakistan for playing a five one-day match series against the Pakistan Punjab's team on Thursday. It must be mentioned here that it is for the first time that any state's cricket team of visually impaired players is going abroad to play one day matches.

This team was flagged off by Anupam Kaler, general assistant to DC, Ludhiana District Sports Officer (DSO) Gian Inder Singh, SGPC Member Surinder Pal Singh Baddowal and Congress leader Jagpal Singh Khangura.

While speaking with the media persons, the captain of the team Gurpreet Singh Machhiwara said that all members of his team are very confident of winning the series. ''Though in Pakistan Punjab team, most of players are the members of Pakistan's national visually impaired team, yet we will do our best to beat them.''

"We have many all-rounders including Rajinder Singh Cheema, Balwinder Singh and Shailendra Singh who can bat and bowl well according to the situation. We also have our main strike bowler Gurbir Singh Dehlon who can spell doom for the opponent team,'' he added.

Gurpreet also told that, "All the players are in good nick as the team has undergone an 18-day long conditioning camp from March 22 to April 8 held at Fatehgarh Sahib. We have also got some wonderful tips from our coach Sunil Kumar and we are hopeful of winning the series."

The team:

Parminder Singh, Gurbir Singh Dehlon, Salinder Singh, Sandeep Kumar Trivedi, Gurpreet Singh Machhiwara, Balwinder Singh, Rajinder Singh Cheema, Murari Lal, Satinder Kumar, Harjinder Singh and Manwinder Singh.