Blind cricket, where players bowl underarm and use a plastic ball, is on the rise in WA with organisers saying participation numbers in the sport are increasing yearly across the state.
The sport allows people with varying degrees of vision impairment to play sport and is run by volunteers.
WA State Blind Cricket Team coach Toby Morrell says more people in WA have joined the team, putting WA in a good position to challenge for the national competition, which has been dominated by NSW in recent years.
“When I started 3 years ago as state coach, we struggled to get 14 (people) to go to the national carnival and a year later we had 17 or 18 available to go and this is continuing which is great,” he said.
West Australian Cricket Association (WACA) inclusion and diversity specialist Brad Denham says blind cricket is drawing many new faces across the state.
“Over the last few years participation has increased in blind cricket as can be seen through the WA State Team,” he said.
Mr Denham believes the sport is accommodating to everyone regardless of their disability.
“Cricket is really adaptable to be made more possible to play across all formats and therefore can be made really inclusive,” he said.
Bowling underarm and the use of plastic bowls are the alterations to the traditional game and West Australian Blind Cricket Club (WABCC) president Adam Ridgwell says blind cricket is a game for all, containing many of the same rules and principles as the normal format.
“The term blind cricket is probably a little bit misleading because there’s all different types of capabilities, you’ve got players that are totally blind up to others who have a formal diagnosis of vision impairment,” he said.
He believes the next step for the altered form of cricket is to create multiple teams across the State.
“We want to be as consistent as possible and competitive at the national level and we really want to put WA on the map.
“Blind cricket has huge potential for growth in the state…I’m hopeful that it can lead to the next level of having multiple teams within the state,” he said.