 "Exclusive | ‘Please support us, we play for India too’: India captain Deepika TC on winning Women’s T20 World Cup for blind")
There were waves of euphoria that swept through the country, as we celebrated the incredible achievement of the Indian women’s cricket team which won the ICC Women’s World Cup in early November this year, after beating South Africa in the final by 52 runs. This win was special and felt really, really good. No doubt, a watershed moment for women’s cricket in India.
The accolades and prizes poured in, the players went on a whirlwind tour of TV studios and newspaper offices. There were photoshoots for magazines as the Indian women’s cricket team members finally became household names. All of it was richly deserved and the final outcome of years of hard world and dedication.
But just a few weeks after this big win, did we forget to properly celebrate the Indian team which won the inaugural Women’s T20 World Cup for the blind last month?
Maybe.
Blind cricket in India, much like the game played by their able-bodied female counterparts, has improved by leaps and bounds over the years. And yet, there is still a huge gulf between the cricket played in India by the visually impaired and that played by the able-bodied cricketers. Very few people actually know about the blind cricket teams in the country, despite how well they have been doing.
The Indian women’s team which won the inaugural Women’s T20 World Cup for the blind, for instance, was undefeated in the tournament across seven matches. The first ever edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup for the blind featured India, Pakistan, Nepal, Australia, the USA and Sri Lanka. India beat Nepal in the final to win the coveted title. But behind the smiles and the euphoric scenes that were witnessed on the field are a bunch of unhappy stories.
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View AllHow India Became World Champions | Women’s T20 World Cup Cricket for the Blind 2025 pic.twitter.com/FgT2LRNCL7
— Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) (@blind_cricket) December 1, 2025
This Indian women’s team is made of players who come from extremely underprivileged backgrounds. They are all mostly from small farming villages and took up the sport over the last few years. Convincing their parents that their daughters should be allowed to play cricket was in itself a huge challenge, expertly tackled by team manager, Shikha Shetty.
Then there was the language barrier. The 16-member squad had players from as many as nine different Indian states – Karnataka, Delhi, Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. They all had different routes that they took to finally reach the Indian national team.
Also Read | Finding light in the dark: How India’s blind women cricketers became world champions
Along with the players, a lot of the credit has to also go to head coach Chandu V, a Karnataka cricketer herself who had just a month to prepare the team for the World Cup and delivered the best result possible.
The leader of this team is Deepika TC, who hails from Karnataka. Deepika lost her vision at a very young age due to an accident. She too comes from a farming family and feels that all the hard work the girls put in and all the obstacles that they have all had to overcome has finally paid off, thanks to this incredible win, that transformed this group of young women from cricketers to world champions, overnight.
In an exclusive interview, Deepika talks about the journey that the team has completed so far, the high of winning the World Cup and the lows that they have all had to endure and some that they still have to go through. She talks about the win against Pakistan, the support that they need in terms of finances and government jobs and also from other stakeholders of Indian cricket like the BCCI, the unwavering support they have so far received from the Cricket Association for the Blind in India and its Lifetime Chairperson, along with the support from the Karnataka state government and much more.
Excerpts…
What was that first, initial feeling when you realised that India had won the inaugural women’s World Cup and that you were now a world champion?
It was an incredibly proud moment for all of us. Our team played very, very well and emerged as the best team in the world. All the girls have put in so much hard work. They have all had to face multiple challenges through their lives, but all their hard work and dedication paid off handsomely thanks to the World Cup title win. I am very, very proud of that.
This win will always be remembered as a watershed moment for visually impaired cricket in the country and the world. It will also, no doubt, inspire many young, visually impaired girls in India to take up cricket. Talk to me a little bit about the entire journey - from preparing for the World Cup to the final and the title win…
We practised for a month in Delhi, before the tournament began. We began strong. In our first match, which was against Sri Lanka, we put up a great performance. We managed to restrict the Lankans to just 48, which we chased down in just three overs (India won this match by 10 wickets). Then all the way to the final, before which I told the team only one thing, ‘Remember how much our parents have had to struggle for us to be where we are today. Let’s play for them. Let’s play for the country, let’s play for our soldiers’.
We were supported at every step by Samarthanam (organisation that supports the Indian blind women’s cricket team and is a CABI partner) and CABI (Cricket Association for the Blind in India). Mahantesh sir (Dr. Mahantesh G Kivadasannavar – the Chairman of CABI) worked very hard for this and supported us throughout.
After we won the World Cup, we were all crying on the field. All of us girls have gone through very tough times in their lives. We come from backgrounds where if we get one square meal a day, that’s a very big thing for us. All our families have really struggled and now we have a result of all the toil and hard work that has gone on behind the scenes. As the captain I got a lot of support from the entire team and I am very proud of this team.
When you look back to the start of the tournament - which began in Delhi before moving to Bengaluru and then Colombo – what did the leadership group talk about as a realistic target that you were chasing? How confident were you that you could go all the way?
Our team was very confident. Most teams have two-three good batters, in our team the whole team almost can both bat and bowl. Sometimes I have a very tough time deciding who should play and who should be on the bench. Our coach has also always been very supportive and helpful. After every match, we sit down and discuss everything that we did wrong and the areas we need to improve in. This always helps a lot, because then we know what the mistakes are that we shouldn’t make again. This is how our strategies are usually drawn up and that gives us a lot of confidence.
Talk to me a little bit about how easy or difficult it was for the team to be formed. The families had to be convinced that their girls would be safe. How did you all come together and become one unit? The girls all come from different villages etc. How difficult was it to gel together as a team?
All the team members hail from villages across India, many from tribal areas. One big challenge has been the language barrier. Hindi is not my first language and those who can speak Hindi well often correct me and ask me to use certain words in certain places for better communication. They guide me.
All of us girls have faced very tough times in our villages. People would say, ‘You are blind. What are you going to do? You won’t be able to do anything.’ The parents are also always worried, because these are girls and not boys and they are severely handicapped. So, the parents are also often extremely unwilling to let the girls go and play and be on their own etc. This means that we need someone who can talk to the parents and guardians and make them feel comfortable and at ease about the girls going and playing.
This is the role that our manager, Shikha ma’am (Shikha Shetty) performs. She tells our parents exactly what the process entails and how their girls can actually go onto achieve something very special, if they are allowed to pursue sport and are given the opportunities. She requests the parents to allow the girls to continue playing cricket. Our team also is very close-knit. We are all like sisters. We share most things. If there’s something that has worked out for me and has made me happy, I go and share that news with the other team members and they feel happy for me too. We also share sad news and talk about the tough things in our lives. We are all very close and all the team members really support me a lot. I am really very happy.
What is a usual practice day for the team like? How do the coaches divide the focus areas etc?
Our practice days usually start around 6-8 am and go on till about 4-5 pm. The practice days are divided into focus days for batting, bowling and fielding. There are separate days marked for each discipline. Then on each day the coach focusses on the area that the individual players need to work on the most. So, if my batting level has gone down, the coach will focus more on that with me.
There is of course a very big difference between able-bodied cricket and blind cricket. We are almost completely dependent on sound to play our kind of cricket. Also, in able-bodied cricket, injuries are usually not very common, but in blind cricket, because the batters have to mostly play sweep shots, since the ball is delivered under-arm and rolls along the pitch, there are high chances of thigh and shoulder injuries. It’s not easy at all. It’s actually very, very difficult to play blind cricket.
Are some bowling changes etc pre-decided or does the captain decide that on the field as per the flow of the game?
It’s usually pre-decided. Our team has both fast bowlers as well as slow bowlers and we decide before-hand, usually, who is going to bowl which over.
The same is true, I’m guessing for the batting order?
Yes. That too is pre-decided.
What would you say is the biggest strength of the Indian blind women’s cricket team?
I think our biggest strength is that we have very good players. Another big strength is the support we get from Mahantesh sir. He keeps reassuring us and encouraging us. He is really like a father to us. He guides us all just like a father-figure. That is a very big strength of this team and makes us all feel very good and comfortable.
Team India was undefeated in the tournament. But which one was the toughest match for you and why?
To be very honest, none of the matches were very tough for us. (India was the only undefeated team in the tournament). It felt really good to have played Pakistan and won that match. That win in particular made us feel really proud of ourselves. This was a big highlight for us in the tournament (India beat Pakistan by 8 wickets in their clash, chasing down the target of 136 in 10 overs for the loss of two wickets).
When you plan for a match, how do you draw up strategies? What are the main targets that you focus on?
The coaches sometimes guide us, calling out gaps in the field to the batters and the areas they should be targeting to send the ball to. The main aim is to go out and hit as much as possible with the bat. We have such a long batting line-up and so many good batters that when we lose a few wickets we don’t feel panicked at all. There is no tension in these circumstances, because we know we have a lot of good batting depth.
Do you think this huge win will change the mindset towards the visually impaired in the country, especially their ability to master a sport? What would your request be for those people who are under the impression that the visually impaired can do very little?
Our society always looks down on the visually impaired. My message to people like that, who think that the blind are not capable of doing anything, is that please change your mindset, we can also achieve things. The cricketers who have vision and can see also represent the country and so do we. We also play for India. Please help and promote blind cricket as much as ‘normal’ cricket is promoted. The more help that visually-impaired people get, the more you will see them coming forward to play sport. The support will boost their confidence. That is my request and plea.
What are the changes that you would like to see in blind women’s cricket overall? More sponsorship and media attention of course is definitely needed. Also help from BCCI perhaps. Head Coach, Chandu V had said earlier - “With the resources we have, reaching this far itself is a miracle”. Any message for the stakeholders of Indian cricket?
For these stakeholders I have only one request. All our girls have gone through very, very tough times. Please help them financially. Please give them government jobs too. The junior cricketers will be very motivated if these things are implemented for the visually impaired cricketers in the country. We should get government jobs.
Tell me a little bit about the official support you have received so far…
The Karnataka government has supported us a lot. We have also received a lot of support from IndusInd Bank and SBI (State Bank of India) also. CABI, Mahantesh sir have all supported us a lot.
The Siddaramaiah government (Karnataka state government) gave all the players in the team who are from Karnataka (three players, including Deepika, who is from Sira in Karnataka) Rs 10 lakh each and have announced Rs 2 lakh for each player in the team. The girls in the team who are from Karnataka have also been promised government jobs by the Chief Minister (the announcement was made by the CM after he felicitated the World Cup winning team at his official residence in Bengaluru in November).
Support like this allows us to live better lives and it also encourages other young girls, who are visually impaired, to come forward and take up cricket and sport overall.
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