On December 31st, the Hon’ble Governor of Karnataka, Shri Thawar Chand Gehlot, honoured the three Blind women cricketers who hail from Karnataka – Deepika TC, Kavya V and Kavya NR, who were a part of the winning national team at the inaugural Women’s T20 World Cup for the Blind 2025.
India clinched the first-ever T20 World Cup by securing a comfortable victory over Nepal by 7 wickets in the final held at P Saravanamuttu stadium in Colombo on November 22, 2025. The six-nation tournament, which comprised India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, the United States, and Australia, started on November 11.
The league matches were held in Delhi and Bengaluru, while the knockouts were held in Colombo. It is safe to say that India showed no signs of struggle throughout their World Cup campaign as they cruised past every team with a comfortable margin of victory and by remaining unbeaten.
“When the Indian Women’s Cricket team (Harmanpreet Kaur’s squad) won the World Cup recently, we, too, as a team decided that we would get the World Cup to India,” captain Deepika TC shared her vision.
The captain of the side, Deepika TC, has been a source of great inspiration and strategic thinking for the team. When entering 2025, she had a massive responsibility on her shoulders, leading India at the IBSA Women’s Blind World Games Cricket Championship.
Her leadership has defined the rise of women’s blind cricket in India, as her team grabbed attention with their performance at the World Games and by continuing their dominance after winning the gold medal at the 2023 IBSA World Games in Birmingham.
She has focused on the wellness of the visually impaired women cricketers by building a support system where they can build their employment pathways and have access to better training facilities. She believes that the sport gave her confidence, but captaincy gave her a purpose to inspire young girls with visual impairments that sport is a possibility, not a privilege.
In the felicitation ceremony, all three female cricketers were rewarded with ₹51,000 for their discipline and their continued success at the national and international levels of the sport.
Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot has played a key role in the upliftment of people with disabilities by reaffirming the importance of equity and inclusion in sports and public life. This award ceremony is a strong affirmation towards the initiatives of Karnataka and its contribution to India’s sporting excellence and its willingness to uplift athletes with visual disabilities.
The Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) guides blind cricket in the country, and its holistic development aimed at the betterment of visually impaired cricketers has borne fruit, with many achievements coming their way in the recent past.
With the strong support the women receive from the government, CABI and from role models like Deepika TC, Indian Women’s Blind Cricket will have a bright future where players with a strong passion for cricket don’t consider their impairments as a liability, and they will strive for the pride of the country as true patriots.
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