Cricket which has had a remarkable growth over past 13 years in Afghanistan, is now riding on the crest of a wave of support and interest inside the war-locked nation. Country witnessed terrific celebrations when it won a game in the Asia Cup.
With four major cricket tournaments appearance in last 4 years including the three Twenty over World cups and one Asia Cup, Afghanistan cricket is on a roller-coaster ride in the international cricket arena.
It wasn’t a long time ago when last year they qualified for the 2015 Cricket World Cup and recently following their landmark win over a test nation Bangladesh in Asia Cup, Afghanistan have qualified for the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) one-day rankings.
Popularity of cricket led to the formation of Afghanistan cricket board in 1995, as the country was locked in the conflict like all other games, cricket too was banned but it became an exception when in the year 2000 the Taliban government gave approval for cricket and subsequently in 2001 the Afghan cricket association was elected as an affiliate member of the ICC.
Afghanistan during the years played a lot of ICC’s B-division tournaments and have displayed constant improvements and received praiseworthy mentions from everyone. They played their first elite tournament in form of ICC T-20 World Cup in 2010, though they lost both the games. They again participated in the same tournament again having lost their two games.
Amidst, Afghanistan played a T-20 against Pakistan in Sharjah which Pakistan only went onto win in the last over and then they played Australia and Pakistan in Sharjah for a 50 over game, which it lost but they played with vigor.
In the recently concluded Asia Cup, Afghanistan played against all the Asian giants like India, Pakistan, tournament winners - Sri Lanka, though Afghanistan team failed to produce a fighting game against the ‘BIG THREES’ but the team won hearts when it not only defeated the Bangladesh team on their home soil but also managed to sneak a bonus point.
Thousands of people brought Kabul to standstill as they celebrated their team’s first victory against a test playing nation. Many thousands more watched the event televised live on TV across the country. Asghar Stanikzai was their top performer with a match winning knock against Bangladesh.
Later, in the T-20 world cup, Afghanistan had a promising start when they defeated Netherlands in their first warm-up game in Bangladesh and then defeated Hong Kong but lost to Bangladesh and a close encounter against minnows Nepal which faltered their run as they failed to qualify for the Super 10s.
They have some good batsmen in form of Asghar Stanikzai, Mohammad Nabi and Mohammad Shahzad who can easily provide a good platform to the team and without a doubt assisted by a strong bowling attack of the Afghans led by the lanky Shapoor Zardan, Hamid Hassan and Samiullah Shehnwari who have troubled a lot of teams even when they have lost the games.
Coach Kabir Khan believes that it is the Afghan bowling attack which has confronted a lot of teams in the past and will continue to do so in future, the only thing that they need to develop is consistency in terms of their performance.
Taking over the cue from the senior side, the Afghan colts recently delivered a big upset to the three time World champions Australia in the under-19 cricket World Cup played in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The UAE based Telecommunication Company Etisalat is now the main sponsor of the Afghan cricket team. The ICC also gave them a major financial boost when the team qualified for the 2015 World cup. The funding will target the creation of more international competitive playing opportunities with other Associate and Full member countries.
Their progress and development in cricket reflects from the fact that they were granted with the Associate membership in a short span of time. UAE cricket board also came up to support the Afghan cricket board by announcing the Sharjah cricket stadium as Afghanistan’s home-ground as security issues are still prevalent in Afghanistan. However, Afghan cricket board with assistance from ICC has built two international stadiums one in Kabul and other one in Jalalabad with good training facilities for their own players to make use of.
Though, slowly but Afghanistan is making an impact in the cricketing world through its potential of may be becoming one-more Asian giant. Cricket in Afghanistan is not only resurrecting people’s life but also evolving a new nation. Indeed Nelson Mandela was true in saying that, “Sports has the power to change the world.” Gone are the days when you thought Afghanistan as a war-torn country. The Sun has not set but is rising in Afghanistan.