England Visually Impaired Team Hailed After Ashes Win

“It is something to be proud of for the rest of my life.”

That’s the words of England Visually Impaired Assistant Coach and Hampshire’s John Cook after his side triumphantly beat Australia in the one-day international and overall Lord’s Taverners International Blind Cricket Series.

Led by England Head Coach Ross Hunter and fellow Hampshire man John Cook, England VI regained The Blind Ashes with a 4-1 series victory on Australia soil. Cook was in full praise of his colleague:

“A special mention should also be made to Ross Hunter, a fellow coach from Hampshire who has shaped and moulded not only a side with confidence and creativity but also to a support team in which each individual has improved technically, tactically, physically and mentally with his interventions and other expert support staff.

“Praise and thanks goes also to the ECB for their vision and foresight to invest heavily into disability cricket at an elite level which compliments and justifies a lot of hard work that is undertaken by county cricket boards with their participation and performance programmes.”

Somerset’s Ed Hossell was England’s most impressive performer with the ball, taking 10 wickets across the ODI series with best figures of 5-35. 369 runs at an average of 123, including two hundreds and two fifties was enough to see London Metro’s Matthew Dean finish the series as England’s highest runs scorer.

Upon their return to England, John Cook said the players should be extremely proud of their display: “It’s an absolute privilege to share in the success of this series with the players and to be part of an Ashes winning series is something to personally be proud of for the rest of my life. The players repaid their clubs, counties and country with professional and dynamic displays on the pitch to rise up and beyond the challenge of wrestling away the Ashes from Australia.”

England Visually Impaired team: Matt Dean (captain), Justin Hollingsworth, Pete Blueitt, Luke Sugg, Si Ledwith, Mark Turnham, Ed Hossell, Rob Comber, Mahomed Khatri, Dan Field, Hassan Khan.