Sheraz CHOHAN, a baseball for the blind coach and founder of the UK Blind Baseball Association, was nominated by UK Coaching Awards in the category Changing Lives Award. Chohan (second from right, standing in cover photo) introduced the discipline in the United Kingdom and founded the Lancashire Lions Visually Impaired Sports Club, the first-ever British baseball for the blind team.
The Lancashire Lions started as a cricket club but then incorporated other disciplines like goalball. However, baseball for the blind quickly became one of the biggest growing disciplines.
“I knew straight away that it would work, because it’s a crossover between cricket and goalball, which we already play,” Chohan said to The Times newspaper.
“[Baseball] will be the biggest growing sport for blind people in the UK. I love seeing these things grow and giving blind people more opportunities in life.” -- Sheraz CHOHAN.
Chohan was introduced into baseball for the blind by Sarwar Ghulam, member of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Paralympic Commission and Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the Italian Baseball for the Blind League 2020 (LIBCI, Lega Italiana Baseball Ciechi e Ipovedenti) after leading his team, Leonessa Brescia, to the title.
“Sometimes I look back and can’t work out how it happened,” Chohan said. “But one thing just led to another. When I was starting up the cricket team, it wasn’t easy at first, but I was determined. I knocked on doors, I went to colleges and blind societies, I rang a lot of people. A lot of doors were shut on me, but I learned to persevere.”
