Page 53 - IMDR Journal 2025

Research Article
or not but in that case they may get injured so they suggest standard guided by a schoolteacher. Sportsperson belongs to
that their stumps should have some sensors which will Nanded and faced challenges while practicing individually,
make sound, like normal cricket have stumps of red light and and sprinter always had the family support. This athletes’
when the ball comes, it blinks so the deep technology like AI achievements include 3 Gold and 1 Silver at the Paralympics
or sound related technology can be incorporated for safety. at the national level. This sprinter also played internationally
through the PRT selections. Ground practices include track
Player 7 plays Cricket. In training phases they are facing
coach issues, i.e. they don’t have a coach for training hence understanding, knowledge of direction accuracy is required
guidance is like they have to do by themselves. The main in the timing used, machines for the pattern recognition and
process starts from Taluka level, then it goes to the District. movement tracking. They competed in ISBA and
After winning at Taluka level, team goes to district level and Paralympics, which are held by the committee of
during district the further team is decided by their own as Maharashtra. The selection was based on timing
they face no expertise for the selection process. After that certifications and MQS (minimum qualification standards).
CABM (Cricket Association for The Blind Of Maharashtra) There are 3 levels: under 17 (junior), under 19 (sub junior),
plays a vital role. They organize a camp for all state players and above 19 (open), and there is no upper limit. The
and take a camp of 50 players and from them they make a competition starts at school level and then at district level
which are conducted in December in the schools which are
team of 15 players and for Ranji trophy accordingly. Tech
specially for the blinds and then State levels. At the State
expectation are in the form that could help them for practice
or coaching tips accordingly. level, there are 4 groups: 8–12, 13–16, 17–21, and 22–25
and from each state 3 qualifiers are taken for nationals. State
Player 8 has played National and currently playing Nagesh level body manages the selections for the Paralympics
trophy (Ranji for blind). At the age of 13 he started his selections and vacancies. In running there are 100 m, 200 m,
cricket career. Cricketer’s achievements are quite a lot faster 400 m, 800 m, 1500 m, and 5 km. These are the lengths for
from school to direct district and from district to state and running. For Relay guidance is needed for the B1 category.
then to National. Aim is to be part of Indian team and play Shared tracks are the same as those of the normal athlete,
International matches for India. Technology for
causing navigation difficulties. There is no marathon for the
improvement were suggested as voice input in stumps,
para-athletes. The longest event is 5 km, with a target of 19
batting practice machine (under arm ground bowling).
minutes. Guides are there with athletes in the B1 category to
5. Shot Put maintain the track boundaries and show the path. Machines
To understand the experience of the visually challenged can be used for directions, guidance, and movement
Shotput players, a semi-structured interview was taken of 1 tracking.
player and was selected based on involvement and The second objective is fulfilled by taking interviews to
participation in the Shotput related events. understand the perspective of the visually impaired athletes
The key findings from the interview are as follows - of Fergusson college, Pune Maharashtra about the
experience, challenge and their technology expectations in
Player 9 had played the Shotput in which participant
the sports they play. This helped the researchers to
achieved the highest best distance of shot put at 14 m. The
understand the ground reality of the challenges and the
Athlete started the journey of shot put from school, then available technology and the expectations of Visually
played at Taluka, District level, and for the National & challenged players in terms of technology for the sports they
International level. When the sportsperson participated in play.
Shotput, the best distance was 14 m at that time. At that
distance, people were not even expecting that distance, so Objective -3
that point was not counted and participants did not get scores The third objective is to understand the deep technology
for that. Also, there is fear of injury that they should not get available for visually impaired athletes for games namely
injured by the people around due to the throw. The throwing Swimming, Chess, Judo, Cricket, Shot put, Running
shot by visually challenged player should not hurt anyone, (Athletes).
this precaution must be taken. Expectations of the player is To fulfil this objective the following resources were taken
that an inbuilt speed breaker technology should be there, like into consideration-
structure should be installed as a priority and should be
activated during the shot. This sensor should be activated Finke, B. (2021),Dartfish. (n.d.), Zebra Medical.(n.d),
Sensoryx. (n.d.), Hartono, F., Tangkudung, J., Sukur, A., &
when the ball is shot. It should have some kind of technology
that can sense the people or objects around and stop the ball Dlis, F. (2020), Cordellos, H. C. (1972), Anandaraj, P. R.,
to keep the people around safe. This measure can be helpful Mahmood, N. H., Abdul Razak, M. A., & Zakaria, N. A.
to avoid injuries. (2024), Woolsey, T. D., Woolsey, C. L., Strohmeyer, S.,
Walker, S., Otto, W., Cheshier, B. C. & Jacobson, B. H.
6. Running
(2020),Yuan, X., Cui, G., & Zhang, J. (2022) ,Vision
To understand the experience of the visually challenged Australia. (2023, July 3) , Blind Cricket England & Wales.
Running players a semi-structured interview was taken of 1 (n.d.) , Blind Sport New Zealand. (n.d.),ChessBase.
player and was selected based on involvement and (n.d.),International Blind Sports Federation. (n.d.), Echo
participation in the Running related events. Hearing Solutions. (n.d.)
The key findings from the interview are as follows - ● Swimming
Player 10 started running or practicing athletics in the first The development of sensor-based visually challenged

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