There are world cups for almost every sport, but few as unique and spirited as the World Cup of cricket for the blind, which will open your eyes to a whole new world of sportsmanship. Chennai, the host city for the World Cup, will be buzzing with excitement from December 3-14, 2002, as visually challenged cricketers from Australia, England, Pakistan, South Africa, India and Sri Lanka sweat it out on the cricket pitch to battle for the prestigious Petro Cup.

In an endeavor to show their strong support for cricket for the blind, the leading oil and energy majors of the country, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), ONGC and GAIL have synergised their resources and efforts to become the title sponsors for the tournament. Now aptly named The Petro World Cup Cricket for the Blind, it will in all its blazing glory be a testimony to flaming passions, zest and zeal for the sport. This fiery and brilliant display of blind cricket is bound to overwhelm audiences during the course of this mega event.

Rarely did one come across a sight as inspirational as the first such World Cup, held in New Delhi, India, in 1998. That historic event will now be replayed in Chennai. The Petro World Cup is being dedicated to the late Sri Madhavrao Scindia, the patron of the Association for Cricket for the Blind in India (ACBI) right from its early years in 1990. Mr Scindia had been a constant friend, philosopher and guide to ACBI before his tragic demise earlier this year.

The tournament is an event authorised by the World Blind Cricket Council and will be played on a league-cum-knock-out basis. The matches will be of 40 overs a side. The semi-finals will be played on December 12 at the CPT India Pistons grounds and the India Cements-Guru Nanak College, while the finals on December 14 at the renowned MA Chidambaram stadium, Chepauk, Chennai. The league matches will be played between December 4-10 at the India Pistons grounds, SPIC YMCA ground and the India Cements ground at Guru Nanak College.

For those who haven't seen it before, cricket for the blind is a marvel of ingenuity, determination and application in sheer defiance of overwhelming odds. Indeed, few things in life can be more inspiring than the sight of 13 flannelled warriors battling visual impairment for the sheer joy of playing the noble game. The game is played with a white plastic ball, filled with tiny ball-bearings that rattle when the ball moves. Each team comprises the conventional 11 players, and apart from some modifications, all the normal rules of regular cricket apply.

The ACBI was formally established in 1996 to look after the administration and promotion of the game in India. The founding Chairman of ACBI, Mr George Abraham, was also a prime mover behind the formation of the World Blind Cricket Council (WBCC). This council, comprising seven major cricket-playing nations, saw the game being standardised with the formulation of set rules that would govern all future tournaments. India has now once again been rewarded for its initiative with the honor of holding the Petro World Cup Cricket for the Blind 2002.

In making the World Cup Cricket for the Blind a reality, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), which has been a long-term associate, has once again lent a helping hand and its resources as the official sponsor of the Indian team. The ACBI also has other esteemed partners who have associated themselves woth the Petro World Cup such as NTPC, Sight Savers International, Parsi Trust, Hotel Savera, Blue Dart Express, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Oil India, LIC, HDFC, Indian Airlines, Score Foundation, Philips India and Montage.

The ACBI has formed a strategic alliance with CricInfo as an associate partner. CricInfo is based in Chennai and is one of the world's largest cricket portals. CricInfo will prominently feature the World Cup on its site and will provide ball-by-ball coverage as well as results of all matches on a daily basis on www.acbi.cricinfo.com .

The Ability Foundation, another associate partner of ACBI, is a national cross-disability NGO. It works towards empowerment and creating a better understanding of disabled people. The Foundation focuses on the abilities of disabled people through information dissemination and advocacy, higher education and employment, legislation and human rights.

Action Aid India, which is also an associate partner of the ACBI, has come forward to support the World Cup and has long-term plans to support blind cricket in India. Action Aid is a 30-year-old development agency working with over five million poor and marginalised people in India and in 35 other countries. Action Aid's initiative in India is Sabala, which is devoted to building community-based rehabilitation for disabled persons and training people and organisations for the same.

Every member of the winning team of the tournament will receive a licensed version of JAWS - by Freedom Scientific Inc., USA - a software that makes computers talk. Jaws is Job Access With Speech, a screen-reading software that is most blind-user-friendly and used by more than 70,000 visually impaired people worldwide in more than 60 countries. Every member of the runner-up team will receive a Digital Voice Organizer from Parrot SA, France. The Best Player of the tournament will be awarded the latest innovation – PAC Mate BNS – a portable Braille computer from Freedom Scientific Inc., USA, and their master distributors for India and its neighboring countries, Karishma Enterprises, Mumbai.

The Petro World cup Cricket for the Blind will provide the blind from various continents and different walks of life with an opportunity to demonstrate their talent and potential. The focus here is on ability rather than disability, so it is a glorious saga of the indomitable human spirit surmounting every obstacle through pure grit and determination. This tournament projects blind people as positive and active human beings with emotions, capabilities and ambitions, thus fostering social integration along with all-round development.

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