CHENNAI: Ravi Shastri, Ian Bishop and Harsha Bhogle are few of the names celebrated for their vivid descriptions of cricket matches in recent memory. While many ardently listen to what they say, thanks to their right choice of words, one, from Afghanistan, felt that the intricacies surrounding the cricket from where he hails is not fully captured or understood.
He is Ahmad Farhad Fidai, who became the first Afghan commentator for a multilateral cricket tournament. On Monday, Farhad sat for his first match between UAE and Oman in the Asia Cup, which the former won by 42 runs.
Farhad is not the first commentator from Afghanistan. Current bowling coach Hamid Hasan and Norman Mirza have commentated on a few bilateral matches. However, Farhad's constant presence for the past few years has earned him a place amongst decorated names in the commentary panel in the ongoing T20I tournament which began on September 9.
"It has been a great honour and a wonderful experience," he told this daily from Abu Dhabi on Tuesday. "I'm looking forward to working with some of the other commentators that I have not worked with yet. Yesterday (Monday) was a great experience working with Sanjay Manjrekar, with Urooj (Mumtaz) from Pakistan and (Matt) Floyd," he added.
Him being inducted to the commentary panel for the ongoing Asia Cup has not only been welcomed by Afghan cricket fans but also by the Afghanistan players, "I had all the national team players coming to me and congratulating me. To name a few — Ibrahim Zadran came to me, Noor Ahmed, Allah Ghazanfar, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Fareed Malik, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Rashid Khan.
So all of them congratulated me. Noor asked me in the tri-series if I was commentating for the Asia Cup or not. And I said yes. And he was very pleased to know that. So that is the sort of a feeling that one compatriot has towards the other, knowing that if I'm doing things on the field, there's somebody over there at the commentary box who is doing justice to the reflection of the players skills and talents," he said.
But his journey was not easy. After graduating from the Kabul Medical University in 2007, Farhad went on to provide interpretation services in conferences across the world. "While I was watching Afghanistan matches then, it would hurt me not to find any Afghans doing commentary," he said. With his experience as an interpreter to top public figures like Presidents and Prime Ministers, Farhad admitted that he took commentary for granted. However, he realised that getting into the box is not as easy as he thought. Five-hour long waits at the premises of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and interviews later, Farhad found himself commentating in the domestic cricket circuit there in 2018. There, he learnt the ropes of commentary as an intern.
His first international gig came in January 2022, when Afghanistan played Netherlands in the 2023 Cricket World Cup qualifiers. Ever since then, he has been the voice of Afghan cricket, whenever they play matches in bilateral series. Farhad felt that an authentic voice was required to tell the stories of players, given the progress of Afghan cricket despite trouble and in no time. "I personally believe commentators from their respective countries can do justice to the emotions of the game and to the recognition of the players, unless you are from the same country as the players, you won't know them so well," Farhad explained.
Ever since his first international match, Farhad's growth as an authentic voice of Afghan cricket is on an upwards trajectory. Last year his marquee event was the U19 Asia Cup. This year, he is on possibly his biggest assignment in the Asia Cup. There he will do what he loves to do — narrate a story. "That tells you that there is a gap, maybe we as Afghans have continuously felt, knowing that there is no voice from Afghanistan in the commentary box. And now the fact that it is being recognised is a big thing for me," he explained.
Come what may be the result of the match between Afghanistan and Bangladesh on Tuesday, for Farhad, narrating stories of his countrymen representing their nation is a dream come true.