LAHORE Deaf cricket one day World Cup scheduled to played later this year from November 24 in United Arab Emirates has been postponed due to world wide spread of coronavirus pandemic. This was stated by Pakistan’s Chief Executive Officer of the Deaf International Cricket Council (DICC), Zahir ud Din Babar, while talking to APP here on Tuesday. He said DICC has taken this decision after its correspondence between its top officials including Chairman Stefan Pichowski (England) and Vice Chairman Ishtiaq Ahmad (Pakistan) and its affiliated bodies across the globe. “The DICC thanks and valuesAustralia, England, Pakistan, India, South Africa for their views, guidance and present situation in their respective countries, we also welcome impending views from other member countries, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, USA and Zimbabwe “, said the DICC CEO. “This has led to the unanimous decision to postpone the mega event in the larger interest of health and safety of the players belonging to all the participating countries”, said Zahir adding “We will not be able to confirm new dates until there is a clearer outcome on sporting events around the globe that has seen the cancellation and postponement. He said DICC has already applied for affili- ationwiththe InternationalcricketCouncil (ICC) and requestedthemto amendtheir affiliation criteria granting us provincial affiliation at the moment and bring down the number of affiliated members countries from ten to six. “As compared to normal cricket we have lesser number of hearing impaired cricketers involved in the game all over the world and that is why we have asked the ICC to give us three to four years time to fulfill the condition of having ten full members countries affiliated with DICC”, said DICC official. “We are confident that ICC will give a due consideration to our request keeping in view our strenuous efforts to popularize deaf cricket in the world “, he asserted. Zahir said UAE cricket Board also showed interest in establishing deaf cricket in all the gulf states besides forming their deaf men and women cricket team, and DICC will provide them all the technical assistance in this regard. “As per the policy of the ICC it has been made mandatory for the all the members countries to form their separate deaf women teams besides establishing deaf women cricket wings to work under the supervision of their respective deaf cricket body “, said the DICC CEO. “DICC is working very hard to promote deaf cricket around the globe and it is a heartening sign that many new countries are contacting us for starting deaf cricket“, he said. He said the Chairman DICC and the entire executive committee of the body have expressed its gratitude to the ICC for its all out support and guidance for the overall development of deaf cricket internationally.—APP
