Cricket for change (CFG ) a UK based charity recently visited Freetown taking cricket to places not used to seeing cricket. these included cricket being played at blind school and working with disabled youth on east Freetown , the organizer of CFG Andy Selling’s said “the charity has been working with these groups for many years in London , Jamaica and Kenya. Our form of cricket is fast and played by just six players and uses a soft ball making it easy for young persons to play .
CFG worked in Freetown with Right to Play and the National Cricket Association in hope of making cricket more wide spread in schools across the country and also in communities that before had little experience of cricket .
One area and community of persons I witnessed was in the blind school where, with a cricket soft ball a bell is inside making game attractive and accessible for blind persons to play
They played this at Milton Mageri school for blind based in centre of Freetown where two children told me “this is great fun and I never knew we could play this game and I hope more disabled persons can have fun we did”
One of the coaches Andy Walsh, himself partially sighted, said “cricket is being played all over world by blind people and we want to see blind cricket grow in Sierra Leone as well
Apart from their work in the blind school they also worked with 5 secondary schools and national cricket coaches, who all took cricket for the first time to be played by physically challenged persons,
One of the coaches said “at first the physically challenged were nervous about playing the game but we saw their attitude change once we made cricket fun and supported and encouraged them. He said “cricket is for all persons and you have same rights to play cricket as anyone in society”
All the physically challenged youth were all feeling so positive after end of 4 days of playing and they said they hoped this would be start of new form of cricket for them.
David Turner, the organiser of the tour here said “the visit this week has really pushed cricket back to grassroots and hopefully over next few years game will spread to all communities of the country.”
“We hope to have more visits or take cricketers to England but we are looking for funding so anyone wanting to support the poorest persons enjoy sport come on board !!!!!!!!!!!!
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