It has been a history making week for South Australian Blind Cricket at the International Blind Sports Association games in Birmingham, with South Australian's involved in the first ever Australian Women's Blind Cricket team.
Over 1000 blind and vision impaired athletes from 70 countries are competing in 10 different sports during the games, with Australia fielding both a Men's and Women's side.
An amazing achievement in their inaugural competition, Australia's Women made the final against India and played at Edgabaston, but went down in a rain affected match.
In the first Women’s match against England, two SA players made their debut with Adeline Roe, a former winner of SACA’s Community Cricket Young Leader award, and Bo Buakhao receiving their caps from Lachie Wallace.
Millie Hart made her debut the following day against India, receiving her cap from Phil Penn, Australia’s representative on the umpiring panel for the tournament.
The Men started their round robin competition with a thrilling match against hosts England, with England chasing down Australia’s total with three balls to spare.
South Australian B1 (totally blind) player Ijlal Ahmed made his debut after receiving his baggy green from Australian Team Manager David Penn. Ijlal then took Australia’s first wicket of the match.
Teenager Reuben Fairbank (B3 Partially Blind Category) made his debut the following day in Australia’s match against India. Reuben was not required to bat but started sensationally with a running catch in the outfield from the first ball of India’s innings.
During the innings, South Australia had a number of current State representatives on the field – SA captain Lachlan Wallace and Australia’s most capped Blind Cricketer Michael Zannis joining Ijlal and Reuben, as well as Brad Brider who has recently moved to SA.
The Australian Men’s team finished their tournament with matches against Pakistan and Bangladesh, but missed making the finals.
The tournament continues the Penn family’s long involvement with international Blind Cricket. In 1996, Malcolm Penn OAM, a totally blind lawyer and the then President of Blind Cricket SA and Rosemary Penn OAM, attended the conference in Delhi which established the laws for the first Blind Cricket World Cup held the following year.