COLOMBO — Rising from the ruins of war to challenge the world’s cricketing establishment, Afghanistan’s rag-tag team hope to inspire the conflict-ravaged nation with a strong showing at the Twenty20 (T20)World Cup in Sri Lanka.
Report by Reuters Afghanistan take on the might of India in their first group match in Colombo today, having qualified for their second successive T20 World Cup. The team’s success against the odds, with many of its players born during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation and knowing little of peace in their home nation, has drawn legions of Afghan youth to take up the game in recent years, according to captain Nawroz Mangal.
Mangal said some 70 000 youngsters had started playing cricket after his team’s breakthrough qualification for the 2010 T20 World Cup in West Indies. “Right now it is more than 500 000,” Mangal said, referring to the country’s cricket-playing population.
“After participating in this World Cup, if we do better, I expect 30 to 40% of the population to start playing cricket.”
Mangal led the team to a 51-run victory against a Sri Lanka A team on Saturday, with vice-captain Mohammad Nabi scoring a 22-ball half-century with five sixes and wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad compiling a similarly quickfire 48.
Born in a refugee camp in the Pakistani frontier city of Peshawar, all rounder Nabi started playing cricket aged 10.
“I played a lot of school cricket there as well as street cricket and everywhere with a tennis ball in Peshawar,” 27-year-old Nabi said.
He made his first-class debut with the Marylebone Cricket Club in 2007, having caught former England captain Mike Gatting’s eye by scoring a century against the team during a tour of India. “There is a lot of improvement in Afghanistan cricket,” said Nabi, who played a leading role in securing the national team’s berth at the 2010 T20 World Cup.
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“Everyone likes cricket. There are a lot of fans now. In sha’Allah (God willing), we will try hard in this tournament to do something for our nation and we want to win one match and go to the super eight (round).”
