Blind cricketers practise at Jamaica College's grounds on Saturday in preparation for the upcoming Regional Blind Cricket Competition. -Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Karlene O'Connor, Gleaner Writer

THEY MAY be visually impaired, but they have set their sights on winning the regional cricket competition for the second time.

The next two weeks will see the 18-member Jamaica blind cricket team preparing intensely for the second Regional Blind Cricket Competition which will be hosted here from July 12-24.

The team was established in 2004, through the collaborative effort of the Jamaica Visually Impaired Cricket Association (JAVICA) and the World Blind Cricket Association.

And the team has significantly bridged the gap between blind and mainstream sports lovers, says Daemion McLean, secretary general of JAVICA.

Need for coaches

"We have over 100 members playing the game actively across the island," said Vivalyn Lattie-Scott, current coach and development officer for the West Indies Cricket Council for the Blind.

Lattie-Scott added that there was currently a need for coaches to work with these teams, which the organisation hopes to cluster in the future to reduce rural-urban travel.

To fill this dearth, David Robertson, coach of Jamaica College's cricket team and who formerly worked with the deaf cricket league locally, is the most recent addition to the coaching staff.

Ransford Wright, director of the Jamaica Council for Persons Living with Disability, said the success of the blind cricket team indicates a positive step.

He told The Gleaner, "The team is making some inroads, though some people do not accept it, it is held in high esteem by the Jamaica Cricket Board."

The regional event will include teams from Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and the Windward Islands.