John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

A month ago the International Blind Cricket Series between Australia and Pakistan took place in Adelaide. I am pleased to say that I was able to spend some time with the Australian Blind Cricket XI at the tournament. The series involved six international matches: three Twenty20s and three 40-over one-day internationals, all played in Adelaide, culminating with the final game at the Adelaide Oval. Hearty congratulations go to the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council, whose team won the series, maintained their domination of international blind cricket and kept their world No. 1 ranking. Pakistan secured a three-nil win in the Twenty20s, as well as a three-nil sweep in the one-day international series, over a very competitive Aussie side who played above expectations throughout.

International blind cricket is played with a hard, white plastic ball, slightly smaller than the standard test match cricket ball and containing pieces of metal or natural material which make a sound as the ball moves. The ball must be bowled underarm, and there is a requirement that the ball bounce at least once on the first half of the pitch before it reaches the batsman. I will refrain from making any analogies to February 1981 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground! The precision with which totally blind players time their shots while batting, mainly employing the sweep shot, is remarkable.

There are three categories of blindness, and each team must field a minimum of four B1, or totally blind, players. I will read from the laws of international blind cricket:

B1: No light perception in either eye up to light perception, but inability to recognise shape of a hand at any distance or in any direction.

B2: From ability to recognise the shape of the hand up to a visual acuity of 2/60 or visual field of less than five degrees in the better eye after correction.

B3: From visual acuity above 2/60 up to visual acuity of 6/60 or a visual field of less than 20 degrees in the better eye after correction.

All runs scored off the bat of a B1 player count as two runs.

Tonight I want to particularly acknowledge the Australian squad in Adelaide, who have done their country proud: David Gauci, the captain, a partially sighted B3 player; Lindsay Heaven, the vice-captain, a partially blind B2 player; Chris Baillie, a totally blind B1 player; Ben Phillips, a totally blind B1 player; David ‘Chongy’ Truong, a totally blind B1 player; David ‘Saxy’ Saxberg, a totally blind B1 player; Michael ‘Z-Man’ Zannis, a totally blind B1 player; Peter ‘Robbo’ Robinson, a partially blind B2 player; Mark Haskett, a partially blind B2 player; Brett ‘Willo’ Wilson, a partially blind B2 player; Matthew McCarthy, a partially sighted B3 player; Corey Heberley, a partially sighted B3 player; Mathew Horsey, a partially sighted B3 player; and Ray ‘Axe’ Moxly, a partially sighted B3 player.

The Australian team has been supported by a group of dedicated officials: Sandra Clemens, manager; Neil Mackay, coach; Julie Clay, physiotherapist; Michael Clemens, umpire; Chris Ive, umpire; Greg Heaven, scorer; Trevor Vayro, tournament referee; Shane Sandford, tournament director; Graham Coulton, chairman of selectors; and Phillip Penn, national selector. It is always important to acknowledge that it is only through the efforts of volunteer officials that tournaments like this can be staged successfully.

The 15-strong Pakistani team was led by captain Abdul Razzaq and accompanied by the chairman of the PBCC, Syed Sultan Shah, and a small group of officials. In the first T20 match, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl. Australia scored 152, Matt Horsey top-scoring with 37 runs from 31 deliveries. Australia were on top from the start of the Pakistan innings, as Lindsay Heaven and Peter Robinson took early wickets. However, Pakistan’s professionalism came to the fore, and an innings of 67 from Anees Javed saw the visitors scrape home with just five balls to spare.

In the second T20 game of the tour, Australia won the toss and sent Pakistan in to bat. The Pakistani batsmen outclassed the Australian attack with a sensational 97 by Muhammad Jameel and 63 by Anees Javed. Pakistan reached 230 for two in 20 overs. The silver lining was two wickets for B1 Aussie bowler Chris Baillie, who finished with two for 59 off four overs. In reply, a number of the Aussie batsmen had starts, but none went on to make a big score. Five players reached 20, with a top score of 38 from Brett Wilson. Australia finished its innings at nine for 187.

In the third and final T20 Pakistan elected to bat. Again it was Muhammad Jameel, a B3 player, who top scored with 104 runs from 65 balls with another half century to Anees Javed. Pakistan finished with four for 217 from their 20 overs. Ray Moxly bowled tightly taking one for 33 off four overs. While Australia had wickets in hand for the whole 20 overs during the chase, our team just could not increase their run rate to threaten the Pakistani total. Lindsay Heaven batted well but unfortunately was forced to retire hurt after scoring 49 from 44 balls. Australia finished with two for 128 after 20 overs. Three of the Pakistani bowlers conceded less than 25 runs from their maximum four overs. Pakistan won the T20 series three-nil.

The one-day international series started on a scorching South Australian Saturday morning. I can assure you, at the ground it was sweltering even in the shade. It was very hard and very hot work for all the cricketers. Australia won the toss and put Pakistan in to bat. Early wickets from Ray Moxly saw Pakistan on the back foot but Pakistan fought back with a 98-run innings from B1 player Muhammed Zafar.

The work in the fields by Matt McCarthy would have made Doug Walters proud. His instinct, anticipation and backing up were simply outstanding. This was the first time Pakistan had been bowled out in years—finishing with the daunting but achievable total of 325 all out. Australia needed to keep wickets in hand and score at better than a run a ball but some early mix-ups with the inevitable unnecessary run-outs saw Australia lose valuable top order wickets. That led to Australians running very cautiously for the remainder of the innings with a number of easy runs not taken. Only Cory Heberley was able to score at a run a ball with 65 runs from 65 balls. Matthew Horsey scored 58 runs from 67 balls.

I had the pleasure of presenting the player of the match award in this game to Muhammed Zafar a totally blind, or B1, Pakistani player who, in a magnificent individual effort, scored not only the 98 runs I mentioned earlier off just 53 balls but bowled a spell of none for 17 off two overs. His fielding on the boundary was quite extraordinary. The speed and certainty with which he would pick up the ball located, of course, by sound alone really did make something so extraordinarily difficult look quite easy.

The second one-day international is best described in the words of the totally blind, B1, Australian player Ben Phillips who sent me this text message after stumps were drawn. It said:

Pakistan won the toss and sent Australia in to bat. Before long, the green and gold boys from beneath the Southern Cross had chalked up a respectable score of 291. The highlight of the innings was Phillips batting performance, being sent to the crease with only 2 balls remaining. The Captain had instructed Phillips to throw the bat and lose his wicket to allow a better sighted player to hit a boundary off the last ball. Phillips, being the man of integrity and good sportsmanship that he is, never throws his wicket away, and thus smashed the ball to the square leg where he was incidentally caught on the boundary by an allegedly blind cricketer! Consequently Phillips was caught for a golden duck, which was in keeping with the Captain’s instructions. The next batsman played a less graceful shot and missed the ball altogether! Pakistan went on to score the runs within 28 overs, and secured the series.

Needless to say Ben Phillips, who is a very fine young man, also has a terrific sense of humour. That is the most remarkable story about a golden duck that I have ever heard and I will be notifying the Primary Club because I am sure they will be very pleased to hear it and give the story some prominence.

For the Senate’s information, Masood Jan starred in the Pakistani innings in that game and scored 72 runs off just 45 deliveries at the top of the order to set up his team’s run chase. Excellent contributions by Muhammad Waqas, 52 runs off 34 balls, and Muhammad Jameel, 60 runs of 40 balls, saw Pakistan home.

The sixth and last game of the series was played at the Adelaide Oval. Again, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl. In a near repeat of game 2 Australia batted very well and again made a record score against the Pakistanis to finish with eight for 293 from 40 overs. Lindsay Heaven scored 75 runs off 68 balls with Matt Horsey really firing with an innings of 54. But it was not enough and man of the series, Muhammad Jameel, was just too good for the Aussie bowlers scoring 151 runs not out off 124 balls. Pakistan went on to win by four wickets and claim a clean sweep in the series.

There is a B1 member of the Australian squad who I would like to give a special mention to. Again that is Ben Phillips and I quoted from Ben’s text message earlier. Ben is totally blind and next weekend he will join the four-person Tigers Melbourne Oxfam Trail Walker team with Max Bryant, John Paul Grima and yours truly as we walk 100 kilometres through the Dandenongs in something under 48 hours.

Ben was selected for the Australian Blind Cricket team to tour New Zealand last January. He played in all five matches of the tour, top scoring on debut with 35 runs of 15 balls. In June, Ben toured the West Indies, playing in three Twenty20 matches and two one-day internationals. During the second T20 against Jamaica in a very rare feat for a B1, or totally blind player, Ben Phillips took a catch.

Even with all that sporting success, the 100-kilometre Oxfam Trailwalk will really test Ben’s mettle. It is a very challenging event. Last year Maxie and I completed the 100 kilometres with another totally blind man, Nick Gleeson. Nick, who has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and last year also climbed to Everest base camp, has said that the 2010 Oxfam Trailwalk was the toughest thing that he has ever done. The event is not just an opportunity to test an individual’s physical abilities; it is one of Australia’s largest charity fundraising events.

Oxfam Australia sponsor wonderful programs in Australia’s Indigenous communities, and of course right across the developing world. Their role in disaster relief has been crucial. So do not forget: if you want to support the Tigers team in Melbourne, let me know. Certainly a number of senators have done that—including certain senators in the chamber tonight—and I very much appreciate that. Donations to the Tigers team and the great work of Oxfam can be made through our team website, which is www.oxfam.org.au/trailwalker/melbourne/team/100.