Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Hansard source

Last year I made contact with local Goalball legend Troy King at an international tournament at old Kings School. Goalball is a game for vision-impaired people that involves throwing a ball, which contains bells, at the goal. Troy brought to my attention another vision-impaired team that was training at the local Kings School for an international tournament that took place last month. This time it was not Goalball, but blind cricket.

Blind Cricket is an extraordinary game that is adapted for athletes with 10 per cent vision or no vision at all. It was actually invented in Melbourne in 1922. Players bowl underarm at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour, and the cricket ball is made from hard plastic and contains ball bearings inside, which allows the totally blind players to track the ball once it has been bowled, hit or thrown.

Australia's T20 Blind Cricket team returned from overseas last month after competing in the Blind Cricket World Cup at different locations all over India. Ten nations participated: Australia, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, New Zealand, England, South Africa and the West Indies. The Australian team made it to the semis, which is an incredible achievement, especially considering that in India and Pakistan blind cricket is a professional sport and players are paid wages and receive bonuses when they win a championship like this. I would like to congratulate Lindsay Heaven, Matt McCarthy, Stephen Palmer, Steffan Nero, Ray Moxly, Mike Hamilton, Jack McAlister, Ned Brewer, Matt Cameron, Dan Pritchard, Brad Brider, Mark Haskett, Brendan Spencer, Michael Zannis, Vaughan Roles, David Saxberg, and Christine Casey who came from all over Australia to compete on behalf of Australian Blind Cricket. Well done, guys!

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