If Sport be the food of life, then play on

1. Blind people in India are passionate about their cricket: The year was 1989, the city was Dehradun, I was visiting the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped and was staying at their guest house. Was woken up one morning by the sound of cricket commentary. Kapil Dev bowling to Sunil Gavaskar... I promptly jumped out of bed and ran towards the grounds just outside my window and saw a group of blind kids playing cricket. The bowling was underarm, they were using a ball that made sound. The skills were good, the action was exciting and the passion was high. I was told that they ate, slept, talked, played cricket just like what one of Coca Cola ads said.
2. Focus is on the Ability and not the Disability: The year was 1993, the city was Ahmedabad and it was the finals of the 3rd National cricket tournament for the blind. The game was between Karnataka and Gujarat. A large number of curious spectators had gathered in the ground to see how exactly the blind play cricket. Soon the curiosity changed to engagement. They no longer were wondering how the blind played the game, they were wanting to know what the score was and how the various individual players were performing. Clearly, the focus had shifted from the blindness to the performance - the Ability and not the Disability.
3. The "mantra" to successful living" It was the great West Indies opening batsman, Conrad Hunt who said " I was born with a tripple handicap. Was born black, poor and not knowing who my parents were. Was growing up wild on the pavements of Bridgetown Barbados, till the time I started playing cricket and discovered the "Mantra" to a successful life. The 5 Ds viz Dream, Desire, Discipline, Dedication, Determination." The sport empowers and I believe that cricket that the blind are so passionate about does teach the blind a thing or two about life.
4. Being a contributer: I believe that it is your ability to contribute that establishes your niche in life, be it your family, your community or for that matter your country. A team sport like cricket does teach you the value of making a contribution. As long as you are able to contribute to the team's cause, you are part of the team. For instance, Yuvraj Singh who was once an integral part of India's batting line up in the shorter versions of the game is today on the fringe of being dropped. He has not been contributing. As John F Kenedy, the former American President had once said "Look at what you can do for the country, rather than what the country can do for you." As long as you are a contributer, you are in the thick of things. Life is about empowerment and contributing.
5. The real problem is not the blindness, it is the mindset: We at Score Foundation have setup Eyeway, a single stop Knowledge resource for living life with blindness. There are 16 million blind people in India and a further 28 million people living with Low Vision. Most of them live in the margins of their families, the community and the Nation.We are concerned about the mindsets of the blind people as well as the mindsets of the community. Eyeway connects with its stakeholders and uses information/knowledge to not only Inform but also to Inspire and Include them into the mainstream. We presently connect with our stakeholders using Radio, the website www.eyeway.org, a SMS alert service, a Help line, Audio books, training programmes. Now we are also looking at establishing cricket as a platform to connect with communities to empower the blind and help focus on their skills and abilities so that they become contributers.
If Sport be the food of life, then we must play on.
(Synopsis of George Abraham's-CEO Score Foundation Talk at the Sport for Development summit held at Mumbai on the 19th of May, 2010)