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Afghanistan’s amazing rise is modern cricket’s greatest story
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By Saibal Chatterjee
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August 22, 2012 |
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Exclusive to the Gulf Today
When your country has been through hell — death, destruction and decades of war — and still continues to grapple with a plethora of intractable problems, fairy tales would be the last thing on the minds of the young and the restless.
But for Afghanistan’s plucky cricketers, there is a remarkable story that is unfolding. Life has been a roller-coaster ride for them from painful anonymity to widespread global acclaim as they have progressed through the ranks of world cricket to a position from where they can now hope to take a fair shot at full ODI status by the end of 2013.
A day after a strong South African team snatched the top spot in the ICC Test rankings from England by posting an emphatic victory at Lord’s, a bunch of far less fancied Afghan lads, playing the semi-final play-off for the ninth place in the ICC Under-19 World Cup at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane, rattled up 336 for seven in 50 overs against Scotland. They then went on to bowl out the latter’s batting line-up for 210 in the 40th over. As clinical a performance as any!
The measure of Afghanistan dominance in the game can be gauged from the fact that Javed Ahmadi’s 134 was the highest individual score of a tournament being played by the world’s best cricket teams.
He smashed four sixes and 17 fours in his 111-ball knock before he was dismissed in the 38th over. The score that Afghanistan put on the board was the second highest team total of the tournament.
These numbers do tell a tale: Afghanistan, a nation of boys and men who have seen much worse in life than a few challenges on a cricket field, has the wherewithal in terms of skill and temperament to take its place alongside, if not among as yet, the world’s strongest teams. And nothing could be better for the game. Who doesn’t love the sight of players who believe they belong and go about the task of playing the game like true naturals?
The ICC’s global development manager Tim Anderson has called the rise of Afghanistan cricket as “a wonderful story”. It sure is.
In Sharjah, in February this year, when Afghansitan played Pakistan in their first-ever ODI against an ICC full member, they showed no signs of being overawed.
When in-form Pakistani tweaker Saeed Ajmal came on to bowl, Afghan keeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad promptly reverse-swept him for a six.
The cocky Shahzad had earlier scored two half-centuries while representing the Associate and Affiliate XI against England, a feat that fetched him a contract to play in the Bangladesh Premier League.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if the feisty wicket-keeper and others boys of his ilk from the Afghan line-up sooner or later break into the Indian Premier League as well.
Afghanistan are currently an Affiliate Member of the ICC, which is the third tier of membership below the 10 Test-playing nations and the 36 Associate member-countries. They have progressed dramatically to this level in just four years.
In 2008, Afghanistan began in Division Five of the World Cricket League competing with the likes of Botswana, Vanuatu, Japan and Nepal. Today they are in Division One - in the same league as Ireland, Kenya, Scotland and the Netherlands, all of whom have played the ICC World Cup tournament.
In the Twenty20 format, Afghanistan have gone a step ahead. They qualified for the last World Cup, and are already ahead of some of the ICC full member nations.
They are ranked ninth ahead of Zimbabwe and the currently unranked Bangladesh.
It is becoming increasingly apparent that Afghanistan, for sheer spunk, are second to none. As they play a game against Australia on Aug.25 in the UAE ahead of a full ODI series involving Pakistan and the boys from Down Under, all eyes will be on the team.
Many of the boys in the current Afghan cricket team were born and raised in the 1980s in refugee camps in Pakistan and they know that cricket is their ticket to a better life, a life beyond their war-torn land that still wears the scars of conflict.
The game against Australia — no matter what the result is — will be more than a game.
It will be another step for Afghanistan cricket in what has been a remarkable journey.
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