POKHARA, NEPAL – Swastika Bhujel, 22, is blind. But that doesn’t stop her from playing cricket. She and her teammates are gaining fame in Nepal for their success on what they say is the world’s first national cricket team for blind women.
“At first, even I didn’t believe in myself enough to play the game,” she says. “But when I put down the white stick and picked up the [cricket] bat, I could play the game well.”
"People don’t realize that she is blind. They often wonder if she sees with her hands."
Bhujel is from Tanahu, a district in Nepal’s Western region. She is studying to receive her bachelor’s degree in education at Prithivi Narayan Campus in Pokhara, a tourist city in Kaski, another district in this region.
Jharana Bohara, one of her college friends, says Bhujel is so good when she plays cricket that people are often surprised to find out that she is blind.
“Seeing her play [cricket] so skillfully, people don’t realize that she is blind,” Bohara says. “But when they discover that and see that she almost never misses her target, they often wonder if she sees with her hands.”
Bhujel, who also works as a massage therapist, says she could hardly believe her cricket capabilities herself. She says she was sitting in the park with her friends one day when some senior men from her college approached and told her that she should play cricket.
“I was taken aback and said to myself, 'If I had the ability to do something like play cricket despite being blind, I would instead use it to bring my vision back,’” she says.
But instead she asked them if it were possible. They encouraged her that she was physically fit and could play the game despite being blind. She says she started playing in 2007.
Bhujel’s friends who aren’t blind say her skills put them to shame.
“When we look at her play, it seems that we [who have eyesight] are the ones who don’t have a vision,” says Sarita Poudel, one of Bhujel’s classmates from Baglung, a district in Nepal’s Western region.
Bohara, who is also from Baglung, says she’s happy for her friend’s achievements.
“Swastika is very much ahead of us,” she says. “Looking at her play, I feel that it’s a God-gifted [talent]. She’s won Woman of the Match in almost every game.”
Bhujel, who plays for the Nepali national team and the Kaski district team, also won Woman of the Match in two blind women’s cricket tournaments in 2010. Bohara says their friends receive recognition for Bhujel’s achievements as well.
“We are not recognized for any particular individual achievements,” she says. “Everyone at college recognizes us as Swastika’s friends.”
Bhujel’s coach on the national women’s cricket team, Maj. Pawan Ghimire, a major in Nepal’s army, also vouches for her skills.
“Swastika is an honest and skilled player who can undertake leadership,” Ghimire says.
Bhujel’s parents are also proud of her for what she has achieved. Her father, Bam Bahadur Bhujel, 65, says he was concerned about her, their 12th child and the youngest in the family.
