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Hi, my name is George Abraham and welcome to Eyeway Conversations. My guest today is Peter Donovan from Australia. He is a financial planner and cricketer. Hi, Peter. Welcome.
Hi, George. Thanks very much for having me.
Let's begin by you telling me how blind cricket started in Australia?
Well, George, it's been going on for 100 years now, or 101 years actually. In Australia, we've got like about six different states. It started in Victoria, in Melbourne, Victoria in 1921. And what happened was, there was a workshop where visually impaired and blind people used to work making cane baskets and various other things. Anyway, one time in the lunch break a lot of the visually impaired people, they wanted to play cricket, but they couldn't play with tennis balls because they couldn't hear it. One guy got a can and filled it with rocks. But that wasn't very good on the bat, it sort of broke bats. So one of the players, one of the people made the first ever cane ball, and he wove around cane ball. And inside it, he had to put something to give it a bit of weight. And to give it a bit of noise. So he put ball bearings and beer bottle tops inside. And the beer bottle tops would connect with the metal ball bearings. And that would make a ringing noise. And they would fall under arm. And that was the beginning of blind cricket in Australia 1921 at the Royal Institute for the Blind in Victoria,
How did the blind people actually get to know and feel for the game?
Well, cricket has been crickets, you're born with a cricket bat in your hand in Australia, just like India. I mean, you know, everybody knows about cricket. But I think what really sparked it was the fact that some of the people just like in India, everyone, as soon as they can walk visually, they're at the park, throwing a cricket ball or throwing a bat around, tennis balls, that sort of stuff. And everyone at school used to always play in the lunchtime, they get the rubbish bin out. And they use that as the wicked made bowl tennis balls. And, you know, a lot of people would do that. But I think the blind people felt they were being left out because they couldn't see or hear a tennis ball. Every time they would try and bat they got bowled because someone bowling to them could see the rubbish bin and they couldn't see the ball. So I think it was really a matter of they had to develop something so that they could enjoy the sport and participate in the sport.
You had mentioned to me some time ago that you were the first captain of the Australian team. And that was sometime around 1987 or 89. So tell me a little bit about the international cricket that you guys were involved with that early.
Okay, so 1987 was the first official side that was picked by the Australian Blind Cricket Council. But before that there were some invitational type teams that went... I understand before my time they went to Sri Lanka and may have gone to some other places but they were just a group of people who decided they were visually impaired wanting to go on a holiday and used the excuse of blind cricket to go on that holiday. I think they played a few games but they weren't representing Australia, but they were Australians playing blind cricket. So anyway, what happened in 1987, it was decided that Australia would do something in our region of Oceania to try and develop blind cricket because all we had was our own country to play against. So in 1987, the Australian Blind Cricket Council contacted the New Zealand Blind Cricket Association and suggested that we might send a team over to help develop the game in New Zealand and a team was picked from Australia, of which I was fortunate enough to be the first ever captain. And we went over there and we toured around New Zealand. At that stage, the Auckland was the dominant cricketing city in New Zealand. We started our trip around, we went by bus and we landed in Christchurch. And then we went around by bus to Christchurch, Dunedin, around a few places down the South Island up to the North Island. But every day, we would have a coaching clinic with the locals. And we would give them the benefit of our experience in terms of bowling, batting, fielding. And that was also you know, with different categories to B1s, B2s, B3s, so we even had, you know, B1s coaching B1s, B2s coaching B2s. Because they had an affinity with them, they knew what they saw, it was like, you know, not just trying to say it to someone here, this is how your bowl or here's how your bat. They're actually saying, well, I'm like you, and this is how I do it. And so we would have a coaching clinic every day. And then we say right here, and now tomorrow, we're going to have a game. And we're going to use the skills that you were taught yesterday to see how you go the next day. And some days, we actually stayed on and played a couple of days and might even blend the sides together, might even blend the Australian side with some of the locals and have to composite sides. But in most cases it was the Australian team having a game against the locals. And that was a wonderful developmental tour. And I think it was the real birth of New Zealand blind cricket on the international stage that they went to like, as you know, George, 1998, they played in the first ever World Cup. So they've actually gone from 1987 Having one team to, you know, 11 years later, having a national team to play in a World Cup.
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Well, that's a great question and that's another interesting story. Because when I said before that they made it with cane, and bottle tops, and all bearings that went on for a lot of years. And a lot of those people worked in what we called sheltered workshops. And that's what they did, they did cane weaving, and they made them. But as time went on and on, less and less of them, were involved in cane weaving. And so we got to a stage probably in the late 70s, where we only had about three ball makers. And we had every state playing blind cricket and they couldn't keep up the demand. It just got too much for them. Because they used to make these balls by hand. And the strength that they had to have would, you know would take them two or three hours to make one ball. So you can imagine if we've got you know, teams playing every weekend. There's a lot of balls required. So, they went away from the actual and the other thing too was the cane ball had to be soaked in water otherwise it would crack. So you almost had to have two balls per game. And you had a can of water behind the stumps at the non bowling end. And at the end of every over you would put the ball in that of water and take out the other ball that was in there because one over was enough it would crack if you didn't if it would crack if you didn't keep it moist. So they went away from there. In the 80s in the late 70s, early 80s, they decided to go to nylon. And that's when people like David Sloan, there was another guy called Ian Walsh. I think you met Ian Walsh at the World Cup. He was a B1 from Australia. He was a ball maker. Doug slam was a ball maker, another guy from South Australia called Lynn Clothier was a ball maker. So they found that they can make the balls as good as the cane ball if not better. But the thing was, they lasted a lot longer. So, the demand could keep up with supply, whereas with cane balls, it couldn't keep up. So they evolved that through to the nylon ball,same design, only it's used with a different, you know, still got live shot, lead shot and bottle tops in it. But it was just designed a little bit differently. Anyway, then, this was a very demanding skill on behalf of these people making. And as they as they aged, the skill wasn't being passed on to other people. So Trevor Vairo, and myself, saw that we were going to have a real catastrophe on our hands that we were going to run out of cricket balls. So we actually, we actually got onto somebody in China, we sent them the design under someone in China, he could make a prefabricated ball out of woven plastic, which wasn't actually woven like a cane ball, but it was all the same features. And still, we had the lead shot and the bottle tops. And so we got on to a developer in China. And that became the source of our balls for ongoing cricket. But as you know, at the, I think it was the 2004 World Blind Cricket Council meeting, there was a great discussion on the ball. And the preferred way, I mean, even back at the 1998 sorry, 1996 meeting, we decided in Delhi to go with what we call the Indian ball, which was the Indian Pakistan ball. And that became the world ball then people did try and change it over time, but it never ever succeeded. And so a lot of our players in Australia now played with the the Indian ball. But some of them still have their games occasionally with the Australian ball.
Growing up as a young, visually impaired person in Australia, mainly in Brisbane. And then later on in Sydney, I believe. Tell me a little bit about what is life like for a personal vision impairment growing up in Australia?
Well, I often get asked that question because I was born with a vision impairment. So I didn't develop one later ages, like a lot of people do. So I've actually had to I was born an albino. Just like my dear friend in India, who I played in the World Cup in 2002. He was, yeah, he wasn't helping. And we shared many story Sushil and I about albinism. But basically, you were just born with a limited amount of vision, and very fair skin, and you just had to adapt to it. My sayings have always been the only thing I can't do is see, everything else is everything else as possible. So I suppose schooling was a bit hard because I went to a school where, you know, it was traditional in your head, blackboardS, no whiteboards back then you had blackboards, and you had chalk and you know, wouldn't matter where you were sitting, be right on top of it to breathe, and I couldn't read the blackboard and I was sort of struggling very much at school, and then there was a school for the blind in Sydney, called Edmunds who produced quite a few good blind cricketers, actually, we did. So I was sent to go to school down there. And, you know, I competed with mathletics and swimming and everything else that everyone else did. I mean, you know, I just thought I just didn't see as well as everyone else. But I didn't let it inhibit me in any way, shape, or form. And, you know there's good support for people with vision impairment in this country schooling and education wise. I'm talking about growing up in the 60s and 70s. I mean, it's much better now. Because it's all evolved. But it was a bit tough at times, but nothing to complain about, a lot of people are worse off than I am.
What was it like for you? How did the family and your community kind of respond to you, were they were this supportive or have you had some kind of discrimination?
No, I would say supportive. I'm one of five children. I've got an older brother and an older sister, and they don't have any vision impairments. Then I came along and I was now albino. I have a sister five years younger than me. She was also an albino, another sister five years younger than her. And she's got no sight impairment. So I think the funniest thing was, as I said, when I was I mean, okay, I can't remember this because I was only a baby. But the story goes around that my mother was in hospital having me. And everyone was looking... my mother had very brown, dark brown hair. And when everyone used to go to the nursery and see all these babies in their little cots, they were always looking for the woman who had the blond hair, because my whole skin and everything was just totally blonde. And my mother said, that's my son. That's what couldn't be you got brown hair. So I think she was discriminated against, not me. But look, she didn't really understand at first, it wasn't until I was about two that someone said, I think there's something wrong with his eyes. And at that stage, they took me to a specialist. And that's when she was told that I was albino because it wasn't something that was very, very common. I mean, when I went to school, I saw more albinos never seen in my life, but you didn't really see them in the street or anything. Anyway, my mother was very, very supportive. She said, well, okay, so that's what he is. So what did we do? And they just said, well, you know, not much you can do. I mean, he's born with it. He's got fair skin, he's got bad eyes. That's the way it is. So live with it. So we did. And, you know, they - my mother and father did everything they possibly could to give me a normal life as possible. And my brothers and sisters were accepting of it. And then when my sister Therese came along five years after me, and she was albino as well, it was the old happening, mum knew exactly what to do. No, I wouldn't say it was discriminatory. I mean, kids at school were very cruel. But that's just I think that's the same everywhere. You know, kids, make fun of you. If you can't see properly or you look different. Kids can be very very cruel. I think kids were more cruel to me, then what adults were.
Now finance is something which involves a lot of numbers. And there are very few people with vision impairment who actually opt for that kind of a profession where the strain on the eye could be quite serious. How come you got into finance? And tell me a little bit about what this financial planning is all about? How did it start and what was a career like?
Yeah, well, look, I have to say my father used to work for a major institution in Australia for 26 years. He wasn't a financial planner, but he used to sell insurance. And when it came time for me to leave school and start work, I like everyone else applied for a lot of jobs. And in one week, I got offered four jobs in 1977. A couple of them with banks, one of them was with the railway. Another one was with this financial institution that my father used to work with. He'd retired by then and I said, dad, what do you think? He said, you go with the one I used to work for. So that was what got me into it. You know, you do what your father tells you. And I did. And look, I worked for them for 27 years, then it was a restructure. And so I was made redundant, but I liked what I did. It's a little bit different. It's not all numbers, George. Yes, there's numbers involved. It's not all it's not like being an accountant or bookkeeper where all you're doing all day long is looking at numbers. A lot of it is strategic in terms of how do you organize things, so that you are in a better place as your life goes on financially than what you would be if you didn't do something. So I couldn't do numbers all day, that would just wreck my eyes. But you know, I do a lot of strategic stuff. And the area that I love being involved in the financial planning area is looking after people with aged care needs. So as people age, they need to possibly go into facilities that look after them in their later years. How does that fit in with government benefits, all that sort of stuff is what I work out strategically. Because we're a little bit different here than I admire a lot of countries in the world, India being one of them where generation after generation look after their parents. Unfortunately, in Australia, that's not quite what it is here. So as people get older, family aren't necessarily looking after them. They can't live in their house anymore. So they've got to go into communities where they get looked after. And that's called aged care. So that's the area that I specialize in. So it's not all number crunching. A lot of its strategy, a lot of its working out how to best organize things so that they get the best outcome.
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Obviously the times when you and I were growing up, we never really knew about technology coming into our lives. When did technology come into your life? And in what form did it come in? And how did that change your professional world as well?
My first encounter with technology wasn't a nice one I'd have to tell you because this institution I worked for, I was in a department that looked after insuring houses and cars and things. And all the records used to be put on a thing called microfiche. I don't know if you remember microfiche? And the only way you could read microfiche was you had to put a little glass plate, and it would enlarge it and throw it up on a mirror into a box thing that you would then read like a bit of a TV. The only trouble was, as soon as I'd stick my head into this box to try and read the small numbers, I would block out the light so it couldn't read anything. So I was virtually useless. Anyway, luckily, I had a good boss on that. And they said, well, that's the only thing we've got here, you know, that's how we operate. And he said, look, I'm going to try and get you into another department that doesn't use this micro features as much as anything else. And he sent me to another department and they actually used like the first computer I ever saw. And they had a terminal which I could actually get ready up very close with my magnifying glass and I could read it. But I remember in those days, in this building I worked in had 31 stories to it. And the second floor of the building took up the whole floor with a computer. Now that computer would fit into a mobile phone. So that's how technology has changed. But yeah, look, I'd have to say technology hasn't really been my friend over the years. I deal with it. But I'm not, I mean, I'm fascinated a lot of visually impaired friends of mine, blind cricketers included they're right into it, you know, they're programmers, and they teach programs and they do all this sort of stuff. Yeah, I just never went, I never went down that path. I was sort of, I was like, one all was in the water. And one all was out of the water. You know I went from no technology to almost complete technology. And even I remember when I went to university, there were no computers when I went to university in the 80s and early 90s. Every time if we had to do an assignment or something, we had to go to the library and get out a book and research that book, and then put it back in the library. Now they just go on to Mr. Google and tells them everything.
You were telling me that on Wednesdays you're not free because you go out to play lawn ball. Lawn ball is something that we don't hear often in India very much. So tell us a little bit about what this lawn ball is about.
You play on a green, not as big as a cricket field. It's firstly a square grassed area, probably about 30 meters long and about 30 meters wide. And it gets divided up into lines like swimming lanes. And so the whole thing is called a green. The lines are called rinks. And what you do is you roll, it's all underarm. You roll a little white ball down the other end, it's known as a jack or kitty. And then you have these big bowls that sit in your hand. But they have a weight on the inside of them. So it's called a bias. So when you send this bowl down, you don't send it straight down, you've got to sort of send it out, and then the buyers brings it back in again. And the whole aim of the game is to try and get as close to that white thing down the other end. And it's also played for the visually impaired in the Commonwealth Games. The visually impaired have a B2, B3 category, which a guy from Australia won it in 2018 in the Gold Coast. Two people from I think, was Scotland, one in Birmingham. So it is also a game that the visually impaired can play. Anyway, when I play in a club here locally. I was playing that even when I was playing blind cricket, but only very, you know, mildly. And I use a monocular to see where that white thing is down the other end. And then after you snap, you see where that is. It's all memory then skill.
That's wonderful, Peter that we could catch up. It's been a long time since we spoke last and thank you very much for giving your time and it's been wonderful listening to you and your life journey.
Well, thank you, George. I mean, you're part of my life journey. I met you in Delhi in 1996 when you were the visionary who formed the World Blind Cricket Council. Hadn't it been for you, I don't know where blind cricket would be today. So the pleasures were mine, mate, you've been a good friend for what were 1996 So we're talking what 26 years now since we first met. And I hope our paths crossed again sometime because you're a great ambassador for people with visual impairment and you've you're a great motivation to a lot of people throughout the world whenever we talk blind cricket, always the name George Abraham always comes up in discussions.
Well, thank you for those kind words and wish you the very best.
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