Indian women’s blind football team set to leave for IBSA World Games

The Indian women’s blind football team is all set to participate in the eight-team IBSA World Games set to get under way at the University of Birmingham from August 14 to 21. When India takes on Austria in the first match on August 14, history will be made as an Indian women’s team will be participating in a world championship for the first time.

From afar, it looked like a regular five-a-side football game. But on moving closer, one found the players moving around with eye masks, beneath which were eye patches, making them completely blind, led solely by the sound of the ball that jingled as it rolled around.

For many who watched an exhibition game of the Indian women’s blind football team at Gamma football turf at Chilavannoor, it was their first time. Among them were Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, State government’s officer on special duty for external cooperation Venu Rajamony and actor Sijoy Varghese.

The Indian women’s blind football team is all set to participate in the eight-team IBSA World Games set to get under way at the University of Birmingham from August 14 to 21. When India takes on Austria in the first match on August 14, history will be made as an Indian women’s team will be participating in a world championship for the first time.

“We had started developing the women’s blind football team alongside the men’s only three years ago. Now we have about 100 registered players across eight State teams. We are eyeing a podium finish since that alone will bring us the recognition of Paralympic India along with the much needed funding. Now, the game is being run solely on sponsorship, including corporate social responsibility funds,” said Sunil J. Mathew, sporting director of the Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF) and head coach of the women’s team.

Japan and Australia are the two other teams to make it to the Games from the Asia/Oceania region.

India has fielded a young team with an average age of 18 years. The youngest player of the squad is 12-year-old striker Akshara Rana from Uttarakhand. “Her name will be heard a lot more in the days to come. Being a minor, it was difficult to get her the passport for which we had to secure authorisation from her parents and arrange for two local guardians,” said Mr. Mathew.

The 10-member team has players from Gujarat, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Kerala. While two of them were completely blind, the remaining six suffered from blindness in excess of 40%.