Hit hard, flat, true and with a whip-crack report, the ball is still gathering pace as it thuds against the back wall of the training centre. Heads nod amid whoops of approval and excitement at what this talent could bring to England’s cricket team. Not the bunch currently scrapping in the World Cup, or the team that will face Australia later this summer, but the gaggle of richly talented amateurs united by two powerful things they have in common: sport and disability. “Our most improved player over the last couple of years,” says Liam Thomas, the vice-captain of England’s physical disability side, of the ball hitter, Matt Askin. Ditching his prosthetic arm has liberated Askin. He now flourishes his bat like a cheerleader’s baton, larruping the ball further and faster than ever. “Hitting sixes with one hand, eh?” adds Thomas. “Amazing.” Teachers, tilers, students, water workers and biscuit exporters by day, the men gathered here for a weekend training session are the elite among 60,000 people with disabilities playing cricket at one level or another. There is a burgeoning range of sports for people with disabilities: the Paralympics is just the tip of the iceberg. From football – there are… Read full this story
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