NELSON’S Qasim Ali believes his England Physical Disability cricket team’s victory in the first international tournament in the sport’s history has laid the foundations for the introduction of a World Cup.

Ali was appointed head coach of the England PD team in May 2014 and just a few months later it became apparent the sport was set to have its first multi-team competition, with only England and Pakistan having previously faced each other in two series in 2012 and 2014.

So last month’s inaugural Red Cross International T20 Tournament for people with Physical Disabilities was a truly ground-breaking event as they were joined by Afghanistan, India and hosts Bangladesh.

England went on to win the event with a 19-run victory over Pakistan in the final on September 10 and Ali was delighted all his, and the players’, hard work in the last year paid off.

The 32-year-old, who has lived in Nelson his whole life, said: “I am hugely proud of the lads and from a management point of view it is a huge achievement.

“We started planning this in October last year once we got wind of the competition and we have really tried to develop the brand of cricket that we want to play.

“The goal we had was to become world champions but we didn’t really know what we would have to do to do that because we had only previously played Pakistan.

“But we worked hard on our fundamental skills over the winter and pushed the players out of their comfort zones.

“We have worked really hard on the strength and conditioning and it is a credit to the lads and the staff that they managed to do that.

“We have also changed a number of other different factors and importantly we learned to adapt and that was evident in Bangladesh because it was not the easiest place to play cricket.”

England lost their opening game against Bangladesh but went on to beat India, Pakistan and Afghanistan in the group stages before beating Pakistan once more in the final.

The overall goal of the England and Wales Cricket Board and a number of the other governing bodies is to eventually introduce a World Cup.

And Ali, who is also the lead coach for Lancashire CCC’s Indoor Cricket Centre, added: “Without a shadow of a doubt this is a step in the right direction as we work towards setting up a World Cup.

“Now we have five teams involved, hopefully there will be a knock-on effect with the others and I know we already have two other teams interested.

“I think we are looking at 2019 for a potential first World Cup ideally because the men’s and women’s events are on then as well.

“If it comes sooner then brilliant but if it doesn’t, then how amazing would it be to have World Cups for the men, women and physical disability cricketers in England?

“What a fantastic dream that would be for not only the players, but their families, friends, the spectators but more importantly the kids and adults who have a disability and don’t really utilise sport as a tool to get back involved with society.”

n To find out more about any of ECB’s four disability programmes (Physical Disability, Learning Disability, Deaf or Visually Impaired) please visit www.ecb.co.uk and search disability or email disabilitycricket@ecb.co.uk