After some time away from the sport, Christine Casey is set to make her international blind cricket debut in India later this month.
After playing the sport sporadically, the 28 year-old returned to the pitch in recent years and is now part of the Australian squad for the Blind Cricket World Cup in India which begins on Saturday.
Christine’s first exposure to blind cricket came during her primary school years, however moving from Queensland to Victoria, along with studying and travelling overseas interrupted her playing career.
“I was playing in 2007 and 2008, then I moved and had some other things going on and it wasn’t till about 2011 that I played again,” Christine said.
“I had a couple more years off after that and started playing again in 2015 and I’ve sort of stuck with it from there.”
A qualified teacher who received a Vision Australia Further Education Bursary in 2008, Christine’s international travels and volunteering also kept her from playing the sport.
“I had been teaching sighted children, as well as kids with vision impairment in Victoria and then I decided to do some volunteering and spent a year teaching Braille, English and other subjects at the Fiji School for the Blind, and a year as an Australian Volunteer for International Development, working with children and adults with disabilities in Tonga.”
Following her off and on participation, representing Australia was something that Christine had never given much thought to.
“I’d played in some representative sides when I was younger, but I never thought it would go much further than that,” she said.
“It came as a real surprise when I found out I’d been picked and now I’m really looking forward to it.”
Blind cricket teams are made up of four totally blind players (B1), three partially blind players (B2) and four partially sighted players (B3). Having been born blind, Christine is a B1 player, which also means every run she scores counts for double. B1 players must also bowl a minimum of 40% of the overs in an innings.
As a B1 player, a big innings from Christine could easily turn a game in Australia’s favour, however she hasn’t set herself any concrete goals.
“The whole experience is really new for me and I just want to make the most of it.
“My only goal is to perform as well as I can and really enjoy myself. It would be great to win, but I don’t want to lose sight of how good an experience this will be.”