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Loading ...cricket or any other sport brings joy to a nation and unites it i think this is just the start maybe icc should turn theier greedy eyes from china to afganistan to make he world we live in a better place
Afghanistan’s story of inspiration
By Will last year, at the end of January Add your comment below
I wrote a piece previewing the World Cricket League Division 3 this week. What? Well, it’s a crucial tournament which gets underway today in Argentina; the top two proceed to the World Cup Qualifiers in South Africa and, if they win that, they’ll be in the 2011 World Cup. The focus is on Afghanistan, their story of a war-torn country suddenly moving up the cricketing ladder being both an unlikely romantic tale and one of blind hope and desire. So keep an eye on our reports, player diaries and so on.
The Times’ Tim Albone has an enjoyable piece on the Afghans too:
If the game in England is smooth grass wickets, in Peshawar it’s broken concrete and rutted, dusty pitches. The dirt tracks that dissected the camp were furrowed and many of the houses little more than mud huts. But the camp was, at its height in the Eighties and Nineties, a mini-city. More than that, it was a state in exile. Beside the mud huts, where the poor lived, stood the palatial houses of Afghan tribal chiefs and the elite. Kacha Gari gave the children of Afghanistan opportunities their homeland couldn’t provide. They could go to school, they could walk around freely without having to worry about bombing raids or violence. And they could play cricket.
“When the Red troops came we emigrated to Pakistan,” says Hasti Gul. “Now, thank God, we are sitting in our country and we are representatives of our country. We thought we would never come back.”
Tags: Afghanistan, world-cricket-league |
11 Responses to “Afghanistan’s story of inspiration”
January 24th, 2009 at 4.58 pm
January 26th, 2009 at 4.26 am
Peshawar is not Afghanistan.My mum’s family moved to Kashmir at the time of India’s independence like many other tribal people of the region.It is in the NWFP(North west frontier province ) in Pakistan.
If they have to play in Peshawar & not Kabul or other Afghan areas than that doesn’t augur well for that part of the world & these rpmantic stories can be put to rest.A little clarity would help surely.
January 26th, 2009 at 3.08 pm
criclover, if you read that quotation again you’ll see that it’s quite clearly referring to a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, where the current Afghanistan team grew up and, most importantly, learned to play cricket.
When the Afghans went home they took cricket with them, and in recent years cricket has become something of a national obsession. The romance lives on!
btw, I’m backing Uganda and Afghanistan for promotion – with the right backing both these countries get pretty good within the not too distant future.
January 26th, 2009 at 9.40 pm
Cricket is expanding 
January 27th, 2009 at 4.06 pm
Rich B,thats exactly what I was pointing out.I didn’t think any of you guys would know the difference b/w Peshawar & Afghanistan.What I was saying was these guys have had to play in Pakistan & bring the game back to their country.So,clearly there isn’t any infrastructure there,not to mention the constant fear of being killed for playing a ‘Zionist’ sport.
I just think cricket fans/media think the world revolves around cricket whereas even though the people of Afghanistan want to modernise & amalgamate with the modern-world,Ex-Taliban warlords aren’t going to allow that to happen anytime soon.
Seriously,can any of you see any country touring Afghanistan to play a friendly One-dayer if say Afghan team became a Bangladesh/Zimbabwe level outfit.I can’t see even Pakistan touring there.The Indian embassy there was successfully attacked in Kabul.
Lets not romanticise please.
January 28th, 2009 at 4.25 pm
criclover, the Afghans could still make the world cup, infrastructure or not. It’ll take years for them to develop as a force in world cricket, but by then hopefully the political situation might be a bit more stable.
In the mean time there’s no reason why they couldn’t play their home games elsewhere. It’s something Pakistan have had to do recently and Bermuda managed 2-3 years without any home games at all because their pitches were so bad.
January 28th, 2009 at 8.02 pm
Bored of the same old teams? Check out WCL Div 3 in Argentina. Uganda just clinched a nailbiter by one run when Hong Kong’s last man was out with two balls to go!
The prize for the winners? Keeping the dream alive of playing in the World Cup / becoming national heroes / quitting their jobs to play cricket full time.
February 1st, 2009 at 7.11 pm
Now that they have won the title of division 3, they will have Hero’s welcome back in Afghanistan. They have improved quickly and I hope I can see them in the WorldCup soon although it is a challange.
February 16th, 2009 at 10.08 am
I agree with you Rich B and request Mr. criclover to leave politics aside and avoid mixing it up with sport. Afghans appreciates the opportunity given to them across the border, but it is also a reality that they were the one who could avail it. To them cricket is a passion and a means to unity. What matters most is to get to worldcup 2011 and show the ICC that they have the potential and now it is their responsibility to extend hand. And once we have standards stadiums, it wont take long to have the 10 top ODIs (almost getting boring) get defeated by the newcommers.
I personally beleive their hard work should be appreciated and a pad on their shoulder will give them a boost to shine over soon.
February 26th, 2009 at 3.02 am
To all of you who think there will be no cricket after this current team ;
Afghan Under 15, Under 17 and under 19 is doing very well, recently under 17 won an Asian cup ( Out side the top four test nations ) our Under 15 was finalist a few years back and our under 19 also done great.
Out of 34 provinces in Afghanistan 22 has a cricket fedreation and there are always a cricket tournament some where in Afghanistan weather allowing. As far security, we will have it by the time an international team is to visit us,.
March 8th, 2009 at 2.56 pm
i want to be a cricketer i am from afghanistan
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