Seeking brightness in cricket

When 22-year-old Nima BC appeared in a cricket ground of Kathmandu, there was no any single sign of gloom or frustration for not being able to see the world. Rather, she was filled with enthusiasm as she was playing the world's first ever Twenty20 International Blind Women cricket tournament. This girl from western Nepal did not enter school until 10, when she realized that she was visually impaired or in general blind. In the initial days of realization, she faced a lot of difficulties while adjusting with the sighted parents and friends in schools.

Nima, who was born blind, told Xinhua, "I love cricket a lot. I want to complete my study and want to be in teaching profession." Now, she is enrolled in a university for bachelors in education in the capital. 

Besides her, 13 other visually impaired girls from across the nation are in Kathmandu to play cricket tournament against similar team of Britain. The three-day tournament that ended Tuesday is being organized by the Cricket Association of Blind Nepal (CABN).

With a spirit to show the world that physically challenged people can have great achievements in life, they are busy in showing their best skills with bat and ball.

The bat is the same with the normal players, but the ball is different, which is made of hard plastic and filled with tiny ball bearings. Also, the bowling they perform is not as similar to the professionals. Bowling is underarm, which creates some kind of sound helping batsman to get ready for batting.

Before bowling, the bowler gives an audible signal and thus the batsman too gives an audible signal in return indicating the readiness.

According to the CABN, the Nepali blind women cricket team comprises 3 categories of visually impaired people. First are completely blind, the second group consists of partially blind players or who can see till 5 meters and the third, partially sighted players who can see till 20 meters distance.

Though they had a very limited time and opportunities for practice, the team clinched victory in all three days match against the Britons. Kirtan Duwal Shrestha, the team coach, said, "There are many difficulties to train the blind team as they are from different districts and need proper support from family as well. We don't have any opportunity to practice in both regional and national level."

Mind it

When the whole world was celebrating World Mental Health Day on October 10 with the theme, “Living with Schizophrenia”, there was no formal celebration of the day in Nepal. 

Upon inquiry, I found just one or two programs held by international organizations. This lack of celebration made me curious about the mental health status in Nepal. It was depressing to know that around 20-30 percent of Nepal’s population suffers from some sort of mental illness. It’s more unfortunate to know that maximum number of these people even don’t know about their own mental state or illness. 

Since no exact statistics on the number of people suffering from mental illness in Nepal is available, it’s clear that mental health is a neglected sector. Major mental diseases observed in Nepal are depression, bipolar affective disorder, and schizophrenia among others. Seventeen percent are suffering from depression and the victims are mostly females. Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Study 2008/2009 conducted by Family Health Division (FHD) of the Department of Health reveals that suicide is the number one cause of death for Nepali women. Depression generates suicidal tendencies in people. One percent lives with schizophrenia.