Blind woman from Bay Area selected to Team USA in cricket World Cup in India
By Andrea Nakano
A Bay Area woman has made it onto the USA national team to represent her country in the first World Cup of cricket in India.
She’s played sports all her life, but she hasn’t always been on a level playing field until now.
Asanda Pavlacka is a multi-sport athlete with a background in martial arts, running, swimming and gymnastics. While she has overcome many hurdles, her biggest challenge came about 28 years ago when she lost her sight.
“I had a degenerative eye condition when I was born, so I was able to see up through my teens,” Pavlacka said. “Then diminished a little by little. Then I ended up having nothing.”
Losing her vision hasn’t stopped Pavlacka from playing sports.
“That’s how I live my life,” she said. “I don’t let too many things stop me and if they do, I figure it out and find a different way.”
That’s what she did when a fellow blind athlete approached her about playing cricket.
“For blind cricket, we’re actually kneeling down to the ground and using the full length of the bat,” Pavlacka said.
After several training camps across the country, Pavlacka was selected to represent Team USA in India.
“In November, we’re going to the first-ever blind World Cup for cricket,” she said.
Pavlacka said that playing cricket is the easy part. The challenges have come off the pitch, from getting their visas to making sure expenses are covered while they are away. She started an online fundraiser to help her and four other teammates.
“There’s five of us on the team that’s kind of flying solo in a sense,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of at-home support.”
Pavlacka said that while the goal is to bring home the gold, it’s a big win to be invited to play a sport on the world stage. If anything, she hopes to use this as a learning experience to improve her skills and go back next year a better player.
“Knowing that I’m not the awesomest awesome person doing something like that is a little ego blow,” she said. “I mean, it’s all about sticking with it and getting better every day and not comparing yourself. Comparing yourself to me.”
