{"id":25750,"date":"2025-02-26T06:01:28","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T06:01:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/?p=25750"},"modified":"2025-02-26T06:01:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T06:01:36","slug":"cricket-is-a-powerful-force-for-connection-and-inclusion-amb-hawkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/?p=25750","title":{"rendered":"Cricket is a powerful force for connection and inclusion, Amb Hawkins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"570\" src=\"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_20250226_105758-1024x570.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25751\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_20250226_105758-1024x570.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_20250226_105758-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_20250226_105758-768x427.jpg 768w, https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_20250226_105758.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>AUSTRALIA BOLSTERS BLIND WOMEN\u2019S CRICKET IN PAKISTAN<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Islamabad : The Australian High Commission, in partnership with the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) and Serena Hotels, supported a national blind women\u2019s cricket training camp and tournament.<br>Women and girls from across Pakistan participated in the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The initiative followed the historic formation of Pakistan\u2019s first blind women\u2019s cricket team in 2018, which played its inaugural international T20 match that same year. This year, 50 additional visually impaired women and girls had the opportunity to sharpen their skills and chase their cricketing dreams.<br>Speaking at the concluding awards ceremony, Australia\u2019s High Commissioner to Pakistan, Neil Hawkins, highlighted how sports diplomacy strengthens ties between nations and transforms lives:<br>\u201cCricket is a powerful force for connection and inclusion. It opens doors for women and girls in Pakistan and Australia, including for those with disabilities, challenging perceptions and breaking barriers.\u201d<br>Chairman of the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council, Syed Sultan Shah, praised the initiative: \u201cBlind Cricket has become a beacon of hope for visually impaired athletes. It\u2019s more than a game\u2014it\u2019s a statement that no disability can hold you back. With the right support, these women can be champions in sport and in life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The players were coached by some of Pakistan\u2019s finest blind cricket mentors, including Abdul Razzaq, Ibrar Shah, Shahida Shaheen, and Tahir Mehmood Butt, who have trained world-class athletes.<br>With a legacy of cricketing excellence, Australia has been at the forefront of promoting blind cricket, a sport that was invented in Melbourne in 1922 when visually impaired factory workers improvised by putting rocks in a tin can to create a ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTRALIA BOLSTERS BLIND WOMEN\u2019S CRICKET IN PAKISTAN Islamabad : The Australian High Commission, in partnership with the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC) and Serena Hotels, supported a national blind women\u2019s&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25751,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2513,368,2512],"class_list":["post-25750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-ambassador-of-australia-to-pakistan","tag-australia-high-commission-pakistan","tag-blind-cricket-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25750"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25752,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25750\/revisions\/25752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}