‘We are playing for England, we wear the same shirt; just because I have a disability, it doesn’t make me any different’: empowerment, eliteness and visually impaired cricket

Abstract

Drawing upon ethnographic research conducted with the England Visually Impaired Cricket Team, this article considers the extent to which participation in visually impaired cricket is an empowering practice. The topic of empowerment and disability sport are well debated; yet, the context of visually impaired cricket provides an original perspective. Using an embodied theoretical approach to disability sport, the participants’ experiences of recreational visually impaired cricket and their transition to the elite national team are investigated to understand the multifaceted ways that empowerment is experienced. There is a specific focus upon how disability sport affects the participants’ conceptualization and negotiation of their corporeality through the concepts of embodied reconceptualization of self and the restored self. Despite the players’ empowering experiences, this article evaluates the consequences of forming an ever-closer relationship with the mainstream game and how the elite organizational approach to visually impaired cricket, introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), has irreversibly changed the empowering potential of the game.

Keywords:

• Visual impairment
• disability
• sport
• cricket
• empowerment

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 An over consists of six consecutive legal deliveries bowled by one bowler.

2 B1 – visual acuity poorer than LogMAR 2.60; B2 – Visual acuity ranging from LogMAR 1.50 to 2.60 (inclusive) and/or Visual field constricted to a diameter of <10°; B3 – Visual acuity ranging from LogMAR 1.40 to 1 (inclusive) and/or Visual field constricted to a diameter of <40° (IBSA, 2017).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ben Powis

Ben Powis Ph.D. is a Lecturer in Football Studies at Southampton Solent University. His research interests include the sociology of disability sport, the embodied experiences of visually impaired people in sport and physical activity and investigating the significance of sporting sensorial experiences.