A year after the World Cup, India's blind women champions still wait for the house sites and jobs they were promised

Nearly a year after they won India a World Cup, the country's blind women cricketers are still waiting for the two things leaders publicly promised them: house sites and government jobs. Captain Deepika T.C., who led India to victory in the first Women's T20 World Cup for the Blind in November 2025, is still waiting for the house site she was promised, The Hindu reported on Tuesday. Deepika, from Madakasira in Andhra Pradesh's Sri Sathya Sai district, developed vision problems as an infant, completed a degree course and practised cricket in Bengaluru despite her parents' fears. In the World Cup, co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka, she scored 92 runs off 45 balls against Australia as India went unbeaten and thrashed Nepal in the Colombo final. The promises rained down after the triumph. Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah announced Rs 10 lakh and government jobs for the Karnataka members of the 16-player squad, and Rs 2 lakh each for the 13 players from other states. Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister K. Pawan Kalyan honoured the players at Vijayawada. Leaders and officials spoke of house sites. A year on, none of it has materialised for most of the team. "Due to our partial vision issues, we cannot move around government offices to follow up on house site issues," Deepika said. "The government has to do its own and instil confidence among us." She is not alone. Pangi Karuna Kumari of Paderu in Alluri Sitharama Raju district, a Class 10 student at a government school in Visakhapatnam, hopes the government will give her a job so she can support her family. Simu Das of Assam, Sushma Patel and Durga Yevle of Madhya Pradesh, Jamuna Rani of Odisha, Anikha Devi of Jammu and Kashmir and Kavya N.R. of Karnataka are all still waiting for consistent support. The players, aged 16 to 28 and mostly from poor rural homes, say they get no playgrounds or fitness guidance locally, cannot afford training in big cities, and that leaders have shown "little interest" in delivering jobs and house sites. The only money to have actually reached the players in a year came from a shipyard. Hindustan Shipyard Limited gave Rs 50,000 to each player under its CSR programme, handed over by Andhra Pradesh MSME minister Kondapalli Srinivas at a felicitation organised by the Sri Gurudeva Charitable Trust at Mangalampalem in Vizianagaram district on Sunday. Team manager and coach Shikha Shetty thanked HSL chairman and managing director Rear Admiral Chandrasekharan Raghuram and director (finance) E. Kiran, saying the support would lift morale ahead of the squad's next assignment, a series against Nepal in New Delhi in December. The Cricket Association for the Blind in India, which scouts these players from villages across the country and trains them, says it needs funds for coaching, fitness, food and travel. Sixteen young women gave India a world title. The state gave them garlands, and then forgot the promises that came with them.