LAHORE: The final of the World Blind Cricket Cup will be played on January 20 at Sharjah instead of Gadaffi Stadium Lahore after India’s refusal to tour Pakistan for the match, the organisers announced on Monday.

“We have shifted the venue from Lahore to Sharjah after a meeting with the President, World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC) Mahantesh G.H from India,” said Syed Sultan Shah, Chairman WBCC while talking to APP on Monday from Sharjah.

He said Mahantesh, who is also the President of Cricket Association of Blind in India, in the meeting said that their government has not given them permission to visit Pakistan which is quite unfortunate.

“It was our utmost desire to visit Pakistan to play matches of the Cup in Pakistan and as the permission was not granted to us by our government, we were left with no option but to play our pool matches in UAE as well as the final,” said Mahantesh. “We always like to visit Pakistan and feel happy to play cricket there.”

“I feel sorry for the lovers of the game in Pakistan for not playing cricket in Pakistan and I am confident that our team will tour Pakistan in near future to play bilateral series,” he added.

Sultan Shah said they were all set to hold the final of the mega event in Lahore as all preparations had been made. “We organised the matches of the World Blind Cricket Cup in different cities of the Punjab in a best possible way and foreign teams expressed their satisfaction and delight the way these matches were staged,” he said.

“But we are confident that Indian blind cricket team will visit Pakistan during the current year to play bilateral series.”

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2018