Afghanistan has been doing very well in different sports recently and the different games that they win bring not only joy to the nation but also a sense of togetherness and patriotism. Last month it was the final of SAFF Championship and this time it is the good news of the Afghan cricket team acquiring a place in World Cup Cricket 2015.
The match that decided that Afghanistan would play the World Cup for the first time was played against Kenya in the second one-day match of International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cricket League in Sharjah, yesterday. Afghan team played marvelously well and showed to the world that they have the potential to play against the giants of cricket in the World Cup. How the Afghan team is going to play in the World Cup is a separate discussion but qualifying for it is in itself a great achievement, especially for a team that has a country which is facing the challenges of insecurity and poverty.
The news brought happiness and joy for the people who walked out on the streets of Kabul and celebrated the victory. Recently, it has been observed that what the politicians have not been able to achieve, the sportsmen have been able to acquire. They have brought the down-trodden people of Afghanistan a ray of hope and a realization of the fact that the Afghans are capable of performing well in all fields of life. Politics has only brought rifts within the people and has divided them on ethnic lines, but the games have saved their unity and their honor.
It is really important for the authorities in Afghanistan to understand that the games and sportsmen have a higher role than just playing games; therefore, they should be given due attention and they should be provided with the facilities so that they are able to compete with other nations of the world. They have proved that having less facilities and opportunities they are able to perform very well, so if they are given facilities they will really polish their abilities and will be able to perform extraordinarily on international level.
If sports are promoted properly, they have the potential to divert the attentions of the people towards positive activities and will be able to keep them away from the social evils that our country is facing nowadays; the evils like terrorism and drugs.