Ian Martin has spent many years championing the cause of disability cricket, and the obstacles along the way have not dimmed his enthusiasm.

As his England squad faced Pakistan for the second time since their first series, in 2012, at the weekend, Martin, the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) head of disability, sat next to the fence on a wooden bench, his crutches beside him, as he cheered his players on.

Swarmed around him was a spirited bunch of cricketers, their orthotics and prosthetics or other disabilities barely discernible as they strut around, proud in their England jerseys.

Some of them returned to Dubai for their second tour. Many others are on their first trip, enjoying the experience of an international series. One of the members went around, a professional video camera in hand, recording every moment.

“Obviously we don’t see much of each other,” said Samuel Wyles, one of the returning members of the England team. “So the time we do spend together, you actually make the most of it. It’s actually really good fun.”

Looking around him, Martin could only be proud of what he saw. He has been involved with disability cricket for around 14 years and his missionary-like zeal convinced the ECB to put together their Disability Cricket department in 2010 with Martin at the helm.

Two years later, they toured Dubai for a series against Pakistan – the first series to be sanctioned by the cricket boards of both nations. And as the two teams squared-off for a second time, Martin hoped they would be able to grab the attention of other cricket-playing nations, where disability cricket enjoys little or no support.

“It is disappointing that there aren’t more countries playing disability cricket,” Martin said. “All the boards don’t appear to be as supportive, certainly as ECB are, but hopefully that will change.

“What we are going to see here over the next week is some really good, competitive cricket between two nations that’s going to be live streamed and you would hope that would provide a great advert for other countries to take notice of.”

Over the years, Martin has been frustrated by the lack of pace in the acceptance of the game and to help it gather some steam, they decided to stream the three Twenty20 matches live on the ECB’s YouTube channel.

There was no shortage of excitement in those three matches, with Pakistan reaching their target of 131 in a tense first match with three balls and five wickets to spare.

Led by Alex Hammond’s 28-ball 57 in the second match, England chased down Pakistan’s 140 for nine to level the series, but in the series decider, they fell short by 11 runs chasing the same score.

“I think the biggest frustration is getting publicity for the game and getting people outside of the disability community to take the game seriously,” Martin said. “What’s really important is that these guys, and the Pakistanis, have a good product. So what you see, you think ‘Wow, this is good’, and you want to come back to [it].

“The first impression that people have of disability cricket has to be positive. It has to be good because there are so many barriers and hurdles we have to overcome. If they turn up and see a poor product, they are not going to come back. So we have to get it right.

“It is frustrating sometimes to feel as if you have to be jumping through hoops sometimes to get the coverage, to get the support that these guys need. But hopefully, what you will see over the next couple of weeks is a load of committed individuals that play a really good standard of cricket despite the disabilities they have.”

For Martin, the ultimate dream is to see his team participating at a World Cup. Unfortunately, he believes he is still a long way away from seeing that happen.

“I don’t know, maybe at least 10 years,” he said. “Until we get more countries playing, it’s a dream.

“The sooner we get more countries playing, we can have more international series and, hopefully, a World Cup.”

arizvi@thenational.ae

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