Blind cricket chiefs strip India of hosting rights for Women’s World Cup 2025

The World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC) on Monday decided that, in future, World Cups and other major international blind cricket events will not be held in India and Pakistan so that both nations could play against each other.

It was decided in the WBCC general council meeting held in Multan on Monday on the sidelines of the T20 World Cup which has entered into the final stage with the decider to be conducted between Pakistan and Bangladesh at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Tuesday (tomorrow).

The decision effectively means that India will not host the 2025 first edition of the Women World Cup.

“Yes, India will not host the Women World Cup next year in the light of this decision,” a WBCC source told Nukta.

India recently did not send its blind cricket team to Pakistan for the T20 World Cup. And in 2022 India had not issued visas to Pakistan blind cricket team for the T20 World Cup.

India’s refusal to send the team to Pakistan has hugely damaged the ongoing World Cup in Pakistan. India’s participation would have put some competitiveness in the event which was not seen in their absence.

In the meeting it was decided that now international events will be held on neutral venues which would ensure the participation of both Pakistan and India.

India’s sports ministry had issued NOC to its blind team for Pakistan tour but the government in the end did not allow the touring party to come to Pakistan for the World Cup.

Meanwhile Syed Sultan Shah was re-elected as the WBCC president. India’s Rajanesh Henery was elected as secretary general.

The meeting was attended by the cricket boards’ representatives from Pakistan, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa and Afghanistan.

The representatives of cricket boards of India, New Zealand and England attended the meeting via video link.

Sultan Shah pledged that blind cricket will be put on the path of progress and its canvas will be expanded as the time progresses.

“Blind cricket will be further expanded and it will also be initiated in the US and Kenya. We have introduced new black glasses for B1 players who cannot see,” he said.

He said that Pakistan and India are the world’s leading sides in blind cricket, adding there is good relationship between the cricket boards of both bodies.