Excelsior Sports Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 9: A seven member wheelchair Basketball team of Voluntary Medicare Society (VMS) of Bemina here has left for Chennai to participate in seven days advanced coaching programme organised by Wheelchair Basketball Federation of India in partnership with International Committee of Red Cross, YWTC Charitable Trust and Vels University.
A spokesman of VMS said here that this is for the first time that any wheelchair basketball team consisting of wheel chair bound physically challenged players from Jammu and Kashmir State are participating in international training course which will start from Tomorrow at JN Indoor Stadium Chennai and conducted by Jess Market from USA. “He has conducted training camps and helped organize sustainable wheelchair basketball programmes in different countries,” the spokesman said.
The team was flagged off by President of VMS Dr Mir Mohammad Maqbool and Secretary Morifat Qadri. On this occasion Dr Maqbool while congratulating team member for being selected for international coaching course said that sports has the ability to remove the distinction of disability. “It can go a long way in ensuring social inclusion for persons with disabilities, bringing them back the mainstream. More importantly, sports can boost their confidence and light up their lives,” he said.
The seven members of the VMS Team were physically rehabilitated by Shafaqat Rehabilitaion Centre and after observing their sports ability, they were selected for the team and a separate basketball coach trained them basics of the game, the spokesman said. “This has enabled them to overcome their impairment to a large degree by improving their health and confidence. For some of them, wheelchair basketball is a passion, while for others, it’s has changed their life. The players, who come from various walks of life and villages across Kashmir, are all wheel chair bound due to injuries caused either by accident or by disease,” he said.
Waseem Lala, the captain of the team who was over enthusiastic was once a good snow skier but sustained spine injury in an accident, restricting his mobility.
Another team member, Farooq Ahmad, who is a former police constable, said the game has restored his confidence and given him a sense of purpose.
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