Cricket made its entry into Afghanistan via refugees who took shelter across the border in Pakistan when the country was in turmoil. As it gears up to play its second World Cup, the youth of the troubled nation are taking up the sport as a means to move up in life
August 26, 2008.
Two ODIs are underway between India and Sri Lanka and South Africa and England. In the first, India prevails by 46 runs. In the second, England win by 10 wickets. As they switch off the lights and go home, the lights are switched on thousands of miles away. In the village of Kheder Pirano, Afghanistan, to be precise.
Foreign troops, who are raiding the area, kill Rahmat Wali, a 32-year-old. His body is found a day later. The death shocks Afghanistan’s then-nascent cricketing community.
“Foreign troops attacked Rahmat Wali’s home last night,” then Afghanistan captain Nawroz Khan Mangal told AFP on August 28. “They locked him up in a room and used poison gas and then a hand grenade.”
Wali was thought to be linked to the Taliban but Mangal denied those links. “He had no links to the Taliban or any other opposition. He was a great player. His death is a big loss for Afghans and the sports community.”
Both the provincial governor (Arsala Jamal), as well as chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation (Shahzada Massoud), confirmed his death in the hours that followed.
Having played for Afghanistan for a five-year period from 2001 to 2006, the country had lost another of its cricketers to the war.
May 11, 2010.
Hamid Karzai, then Afghanistan president, and Hillary Clinton, then US secretary of state, are locked in talks to discuss differences ‘over strategy for defeating the Taliban and corruption in Afghanistan,’ according to the Guardian. Before that meeting, Clinton used a now familiar trope while speaking about Afghanistan.
Cricket.
“I might suggest that if we are searching for a model of how to meet tough international challenges with skill, dedication and teamwork, we need only to look to the Afghan national cricket team,” she had said.
“Afghanistan did not even have a cricket team a decade ago.” And that is essentially why the Afghanistan cricket story is one of the remarkable ever told in the history of team sport. It has served as a vehicle for hope and an elixir against incurable ailments.
Nine years have passed but this stopped being a fantasy sometime ago. It’s developed wings and the world’s 10th best cricket team arrive in England with an ambition of being a genuine party poopers every time they step on to the field.
It’s become a cliche to link Afghanistan cricket to war but the comparison has to be used because, in a roundabout way, without the latter, the former may not even have developed in such a short time.
As the last vestiges of the Cold War was being played out after the Soviets placed their tanks across Afghanistan’s front doors in December 1979, the locals were rendered helpless. As the fighting intensified, many of them upped and left to Pakistan.
While in refugee camps there, they became acquainted with the game. After they came back to their homeland, that acquaintance turned to love.
Four of those people who came back — Nabi, Dawlat Zadran, Asghar Stanikzai and Shapoor Zadran — formed the spine of the side as they sped through the World Cricket Leagues before qualifying for the 2015 World Cup. Nabi, in fact, captained that side.
There is another element that links cricket to the war. Former Afghanistan coach Lalchand Rajput says that’s why many youths have turned towards cricket to try and sustain themselves in an environment that is devoid of stability and jobs.
“Cricket has given them a priceless avenue for better livelihood,” he says.
“The country just doesn’t have enough jobs so cricket, quite naturally, became a calling card for scores of teens.” Their World Cup squad, with three players aged 21 or below, reflects this. Barring Pakistan, no other team has more than one.
But that still doesn’t say why the team, who were playing affiliate cricket when the 2011 World Cup was around, now possess multiple potential world-class match winners. Rajput, who had to quit his role after the Board asked him to work out of Kabul in 2017, opines that it’s all down to hard work and ethics.
“They do not compromise on putting the hard yards in training and practice. Almost every player I worked with had amazing work ethics, I don’t think I have ever had to question their attitude during net sessions, training routines and so on.”
The 57-year-old shares an example to illustrate his point.
“One of my first days of training, I asked the boys to run five rounds around the ground before practice. Most of them ended up running 10. They were all prepared to run through a brick wall if it made them one per cent better in cricket. That’s the sort of attitude you need for teams who seek to improve themselves incrementally.”
That they lucked out with a once-in-a-generation talent like Rashid Khan so early in their growth story has also helped. Many young men, Rajput says, are watching the 20-year-old before asking themselves one basic question: “If he can, why can’t I?”
That thinking is why Afghanistan has already started producing a carousel of spinners.
“They have all seen the mushrooming of T20 leagues around the world. That the likes of Rashid and Nabi have been able to play in those leagues for vast sums of money has helped others who all want to become the next Rashid.”
To this end, the Board started the Afghanistan Premier League — a T20 league — last year. With Chris Gayle and Shahid Afridi as part of different franchises, the local players not only got to play with the likes of Rashid but with world class players from other parts of the world. That has already helped if current coach Phil Simmons is to be believed.
“The opportunity to learn for the Afghan players in this league is immense,” he was quoted as saying by Skysports last year. “The main objectives of holding APL from my point of view is to be able to see more of the young Afghan players in action and to showcase the talent of newer players to the whole world. In terms of the quality of cricket, this has been a great success with no real one-sided matches.”
A southpaw by the name of Hazratullah Zazai, playing for Kabul Zwanan, scored 322 runs at a strike rate of 193.97 from 10 matches.
The 21-year-old, who had already made his international bow by then, cemented his burgeoning reputation by becoming just the third player in T20s to score six sixes in an over. In England, Zazai and 14 others will look to add another layer of the improbable to what has already been a story for the ages.