Afghan Cricket

Amid all the furore over the current IPL in South Africa, Fred Flintoff’s injury, the forthcoming World Twenty20 Cup in England and, of course, the countdown to The Ashes this summer, the recently-finished ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifying tournament may have gone unnoticed, but for one outstanding story: the emergence of Afghanistan as a cricketing nation on a continual rise which will now see them taking on the big boys, at least in the one day game.

That’s right, Afghanistan, best-known for its rugs and hounds and, unhappily, warfare that saw first the former Soviet Union invade and now, in more recent times, the West’s eternal battle with the Taliban. 

There’s not been a great deal of good news in Kabul, Kandahar and other notable Afghan centres, especially not on the sporting front, but all this has changed with the news that by finishing an outstanding fifth in the tournament the Afghan cricket team has secured ODI status for the next four years. Moreover, by beating Scotland during the tournament, another small nation which was already enjoying ODI status, Afghanistan can currently boast a 100% record in ODI games. 

Add to this the fact that their success means Afghanistan has qualified for the ICC World Twenty20 qualifier for the 2010 event in the Caribbean, and qualified for the ICC Intercontinental Cup, a first-class four-day tournament for the leading sides in the Development Programme and, all in all, it’s been a very satisfying last few weeks for the Afghan cricket team, and that’s not a sentence many thought would be written as the bombs rained down on Afghanistan. 

“The boys showed so much courage and talent,” said a proud Kabir Khan, the team’s head coach and former Pakistan test star. “I’m sure we will play in a World Cup one day. This will help develop the cricketing culture in Afghanistan. Our team is very good in the short form of the game and in Twenty20 they will be challenging a lot of the big teams. All their life in Afghanistan they have played 20 or 25 over cricket, so their games are well suited to this.”

Among the team’s more notable performances during the tournament were wins over both Denmark and Bermuda, both of whom played in the World Cup in the West Indies in 2007. Among its star players are Hamid Hassan and Mohammed Nabi, who both spent time on the MCC ground staff. Hamid is a fast bowler who can reputedly bowl at 140 kph, while Nabi is a talented spinner and hard-hitting batsman. 

Hassan is confident the sport will continue to grow back in his home country, despite all the problems it continues to face. “Lots of boys play cricket in Afghanistan and everybody loves the sport,” he said. “We start to play from a young age and you see lots of people playing on the streets and on the side of the road. There are no grounds in a good condition. If we had good facilities in the next five years or so we would become very famous in world cricket.”

Coach Hassan admitted that it has been tough reaching such goals while Afghanistan has been under a state of war for so long. “The war has affected all the country and it has also affected all the players’ homes,” he revealed. “Some of the players are still in Peshawar, in Pakistan, as they still haven’t got their homes back. The best thing about them is that when they come away to play in competitions, they forget about the problems at home and think about the game.

“Most of the cricketers spend a lot of their time in Pakistan, as I want them to be playing club cricket. Step by step they are going up in the cricketing world and they can’t afford to be away from the game. When they are back in Afghanistan it is harder for them to play, go to the gym and do their normal routine because of the conditions at home.

“Cricket is loved by both parties - the Government and the opposition. Everybody loves the game in Afghanistan. It is the one thing nobody disputes about.”

While the rest of the world’s top cricketers may feel they have hurdles to overcome, nothing compares to what the Afghan players have had to deal with and, on the evidence of their continual rise to the top table of the cricketing elite, they appear to be overcoming them with impressive determination and skill.