If there is a more inspiring story in sport than that of the Afghanistan cricket team, we are yet to hear about it. If there is a more heart-warming tale coming out of a nation ravaged by war, it remains to be told.
It is the story of the human spirit triumphing against the heaviest of odds. It is the story of daring to dream the most impossible-seeming of dreams, and living that dream.
Among those who dreamt of Afghanistan playing at the cricket World Cup one day, while living in refugee camps in another country, was Nawroz Mangal. Now the chief national selector, he has been a crucial part of his country’s incredible journey that has won admirers wherever cricket is played.
That journey recently took Mangal to Sharjah, where Afghanistan cricket reached another milestone – the creation of a star-studded T20 league of its own. On the eve of the Afghanistan Premier League’s kick-off, sitting in one of the VIP boxes at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, the former Afghan captain tells The Hindu he is sometimes himself surprised with the kind of success his players have achieved on the global stage, given the state of affairs back home.
The war that began with the invasion of the United States in 2001 has not ended, the Taliban continues to launch attacks, and peace is some distance away. “The situation is difficult in Afghanistan,” he says. “We have little infrastructure.”
Quick progress
Afghan cricketers may not be able to play a game before their adoring fans any time in the foreseeable future. Forget playing, they have to look for places outside the country for training.
The Afghan team is undergoing a pre-season camp in Chennai at the moment, having trained in the past in places like Sharjah, Noida and Dehradun. Nomads they may be, but they have proved they feel at home in international cricket.
No other country has possibly covered as much ground in any sport in as short a span of time, even while bearing the brunt of bloody wars. After forming its first official team in 1995, Afghanistan is ranked No. 8 in the ICC’s world ranking for T20, ahead of countries like Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Sri Lanka received ICC’s associate membership in 1965 and Bangladesh in 1977; Afghanistan was admitted only in 2001.
In June this year, Afghanistan played a Test too (only the 12th country to do so in history, going back to 1877). Yes, it was walloped by India in that match by an innings and 262 runs inside two days at Bengaluru. That wasn’t much of a surprise, though, considering the lack of experience of the team in games in which it has to bat twice.
Fine ODI side
However, three months later at the Asia Cup in the UAE, Afghanistan tied with India – which had rested some top stars like Virat Kohli, though – after beating Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It had also given Pakistan a scare.
Afghanistan has indeed evolved into a fine ODI side and the expectations will be high at the World Cup in England next year. “Our target is to do well, not just to participate,” says Mangal. “When announcing the team in Kabul, I was asked about the team’s expectations. We have to push our rivals hard; the boys have been doing that.” It will be Afghanistan’s second World Cup. It had made its debut in Australia in 2015, with a match against Bangladesh in Canberra. Mangal had played in that game. His dream had finally come true. But, it is doubtful his happiness would have matched that of Taj Malik, the man who is widely called the father of Afghanistan cricket. Mangal was discovered by him.
It is because of people like Malik and Allah Dad Noori that cricket has got an exciting team and the world an enchanting fairytale. Malik’s fascination with the sport began at a refugee camp in Kacha Giri, near Peshawar on Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. The year was 1987. Pakistan and India were co-hosting the World Cup. He was 12.
The trigger
He fell in love with the game, learnt everything about it and started playing it along with his three brothers – when their father was away in Afghanistan fighting the Soviets. They had no money to buy bats, but, Malik would find a way.
An incident, described by Tim Alborne in his book, ‘Out of the Ashes: The Remarkable Rise and Rise of Afghanistan Cricket,’ tells us how ingenious Malik was. It happened when the brothers and friends found that the only bat they had had broken.
Taj made them join a funeral procession – the ground was near the graveyard – as the mourners would get a small financial gift. The boys’ sobbing did not go in vain: they were able to buy two new bats with the money they got.
Taj went on to establish a team in his refugee camp and called it the Afghan Cricket Club. The long journey to Canberra had begun.
Lalchand Rajput is glad that he got an opportunity to drive Afghanistan on the road to some of its successes, as its coach in 2016-17. “I saw it as an exciting challenge, but many of my friends were baffled,” the former Indian batsman says on the phone from Mumbai airport, shortly before he boards the flight to Harare to join his current team, Zimbabwe. “Some of them felt I was going to waste my time.” Rajput knew he wasn’t. “I was impressed with Afghan players’ willingness to work hard and I found them very passionate,” he says. “Cricket is the only thing that gives happiness to the people of Afghanistan, who expect to hear the sound of bombs exploding any time.
Star players
Training them been a highly gratifying experience for me. During my tenure, they never lost a series, got Test status and two of their players joined the IPL.”
One of them, Rashid Khan, is perhaps the most famous Afghan today. The astonishingly successful leg-spinner is also the world’s No.1 bowler in T20 cricket. He isn’t the only Afghan cricketer entertaining the world with dazzling skills. Another spinner, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, has been as much a revelation as he is a mystery to batsmen.
A fortnight ago, Mohammad Shahzad broke T10 records while slamming 74 not out off 16 balls for Sindhis against Rajputs in Dubai. Five weeks before that, Hazratullah Zazai became only the third batsman in T20 to hit six sixes in an over, while playing for Kabul Zwanan against Balkh Legends at the APL in Sharjah.
Promising future
“And there are more youngsters coming up,” says Mangal. “Batsmen Shahidullah Kamal and Darwish Rasooli, pacer Naveen-ul-Haq and leg-spinner Qais Ahmed are all very promising.”
But, Afghanistan needs to do more if it has to be competitive in Tests. “The ICC should us give more international matches, Tests especially,” Mangal says. “We also have to organise more three-day and four-day matches in domestic cricket.”
It may not be easy, of course. But, then, nothing has come easy for Afghanistan’s cricketers. Their resilience has been acknowledged beyond the borders of cricket. “If we are searching for a model of how to meet tough international challenges with skill, dedication and team work, we need only to look to the Afghan national cricket team,” American politician Hillary Clinton had said in 2010.
Eight years on, her words ring even truer.
