THE England Visually Impaired cricket team are playing a demonstration match against Hampshire Under-17s at 3pm this afternoon at The Rose Bowl.

The teams will play with an inflated musical ball, allowing the players who are totally blind the chance to hear it coming.

The match is followed by three coaching sessions organised by the Hampshire Cricket Board's disability officer Jeff Levick.

A session for Secondary School mild-learning-difficulties pupils takes place at North Walls, Winchester this Thursday with nine participating schools.

For those with severe learning difficulties, a session will be held at Fleming Park Leisure Centre, Eastleigh next Tuesday, with eight schools turning up.

For primary school pupils with mild learning difficulties, a session takes place at The Bat & Ball, Hambledon, on Wednesday, July 9, featuring nine schools.

Levick explained that Hampshire receive about £1,600 from the ECB for disability cricket, and that the county "are leading the way" having organised three festivals.

Last month Chandler's Ford-based Toynbee School's visually impaired unit took a team to Lord's to play sides from Sussex and Surrey in an indoor tournament.

Despite the fact the players had only been introduced to the game in May, they performed creditably.

"The introduction of Blind Cricket has so far been a real success," said Graham Carter, head of the visually impaired unit at Toynbee School.

"The training sessions at The Rose Bowl with Geoff Smith (England wicketkeeper) and with Dan Feist, who is responsible for developing the game for the blind in Hampshire, gave a real incentive for the pupils to become further involved."