BENGALURU: Bengaluru can take pride in spearheading a sporting movement that aims to restore normalcy in the lives of persons with physical disabilities.
Three teams – Bagalkot Badshahs, Bangalore Rockers and Team Eagles – with members wearing colourful team shirts, and steering their wheelchairs, were part of a cricket tournament on Saturday.
Organised by the not-for-profit organisation, Motivation India, in collaboration with Margadarshi and Divyang Mitry, at Shalini Ground in the city, the contest treated the crowd to diving catches and nail-biting finishes that the limited-overs version of the country’s ‘unifying religion’ is normally associated with.
“It takes unbridled enthusiasm and total involvement for a person to jump out of a wheelchair to take a catch,” Maliha Abroo, a “Virat Kohli fan” said, without taking her eyes off the game.
Like everyone else, the disabled people too crave for entertainment after a tiring day, conquering challenges thrown at them, according to Biju Mathew, Regional Director, Motivation India, which provided customised sporting wheelchairs to the participants.
Playing a sport like cricket offers that perfect opportunity, he said. Mathew is excited at the prospect of taking the tournament to other parts of the country. “Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi have already shown keenness to hold the event, which is bound to bring a sea change in the lives of people with movement restrictions,” he said.
Motivation India started making world-class wheelchairs that could be used in sporting events when the International Paralympic Committee asked it to design and manufacture ‘affordable’ sports wheelchairs.
“We launched a multi-sport elite wheelchair at the 2012 London Olympics, which was used in that edition of the Paralympics. Even entry-level athletes from poorer countries could afford the wheelchairs we offered for Rs 30,000, down from Rs 1.5-5 lakh that they then cost. Our wheelchairs are now used by over 20,000 people across 100 countries,” Mathew said. These wheelchairs allow people to move the upper part of their body and hands freely. “Not only do standard wheelchairs restrict the occupant’s movements, they are not stable either,” he added, emphasising that wheelchairs for sportspersons must not flip over, especially backwards. A pronounced camber for the main wheels increases stability.
“This initiative coming out of Bengaluru has the potential to go wider and become a national movement,” observed Murray Culshaw, who heads India Cares, which helps charity organisations “communicate their work to the rest of the world”.
Soumya Reddy, Jayanagar MLA, gave away the prizes to the winners.