Colin Munro knows how hard it is facing the best bowlers in the world, now he knows how hard cricket would be if you couldn’t see the ball at all.
For the first time in ten years, New Zealand will be competing in the Blind Cricket World Cup. The squad have had their last trial ahead of the team naming this week, and Munro went along to check out what Blind Cricket is all about.
Blind Cricket teams are made up of players that qualify in three different categories. These categories are called B1, B2, and B3. The categories represent the different levels of sight the players have. B3’s have blurred vision, B2’s have tunnel vision and B1’s have no vision at all.
Munro had the opportunity to try out glasses which restricted his sight, and then gave batting and bowling a go.
Munro was astounded by the challenge of playing without his vision. “Terrifying, especially when you put the B1 glasses on.”
The powerful batsman even compared the experience to facing the fastest bowlers in the world, “We face guys 140, 150 that’s quite scary, but that was nearly more terrifying.”
Blind Cricket in New Zealand has seen a bit of a revamp in the last couple of years, which includes getting great leadership from former WHITE FERN Maia Lewis who has taken over as head coach. With her help the players have improved tremendously.
The left-handed batsman was very impressed, “I take my hat off to these guys as their skill level is through the roof.”
Munro thought that other cricketers could learn something from their spirit. “Sometimes players get a little niggle and they want to sit on the side-lines, these guys are blind and they are getting out there and giving it a go.”
The team head over to India early next year for the World Cup, Colin Munro is very excited for them.
“It will be awesome for them to go there and experience India. Hopefully it’s not just a one off and they can get looked after in the future as well, because there’s some really good young players here that I think can take the game in New Zealand to the next level.”
