Odisha picks visually-impaired team for zonal, national cricket tourneys

Bhubaneswar: Cricket Association for the Visually Impaired (CAVI) on Sunday announced the 16-member Odisha squad to participate in 6th East Zone and 25th National Cricket Tournaments for the visually impaired.

The team members are Md Jafar Iqbal, Kalia Pradhan, Tapan Kumar Gouda, Anil Kumar Mallick, Debraj Behera, Pankaj Bhue, Nakula Badnaik, Jujhar Bari, Singrai Majhi, Lalprasad Soren, Sukhram Majhi, Biswanath Khara, Lingaraj Rautra, Sukhdev Soren, Jogendra Jatni and Chandrasekhar Patnaik.

The East Zone will be held at West Bengal from October 20 to 22 while the National Tournament will be conducted at Mumbai between October 29 and November 3.

Based on the performance in the zonal and the national, the probable 42-member India team will be picked for the 5th ODI World Cup scheduled to be held in Dubai from January 8 to 15.

“I am very hopeful about this team. Odisha is the defending champion in East Zone. Odisha has won all five consecutive zonal tournaments. I hope the team will bring the glory to the state by winning both the tournaments,” CAVI general secretary Sannyas Kumar Behera said.