By R Vijay Kumar
Afghanistan has been in the news for all wrong reasons for ages now. Since the debacle of situations during and after the Soviet invasion, all that happened to the nation brought only misery in the face of Taliban occupation. Human rights violations, atrocities committed against women, a highly unstable and unpredictable government which had no vision for the national growth other than imposing religious values and to add to all these impediments, nature-infused its fury in earthquakes decimating the little happiness that was left around.
The people of the nation had nothing to cheer about or to boast about their nation until cricket happened to them. While all of the countries around were witnessing the dark side of Afghanistan, somewhere out of cash stripped nation with no cricket board as rich as any other nation’s board, no cricket stadium, no facilities to train and above all no support from the religious junta government, there emerged promising, highly resolved, strong-minded motivated native Afghan youth in the world of cricket.
Since their formal recognition as a cricket board by ICC in 2017 these bunch of cricketers have put their heart out to display exemplary talent and love for the game. What is notable to mention is all the players are native and have not imported any players from around the world to substantiate their strength and this World Cup was a defining moment not only for the team but the amount of joy, hope and happiness they brought to the distressed people of Afghanistan.
It is a pure joy to see fans fluttering their national flag in the stadiums and cheering for their national team. Having beaten premier test playing nations like England, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in this world cup and almost beat Australia for a semifinal berth. Alas! That was not to be. But in every sense they have declared that they are going to be a force to reckon with in future and presently they have won many hearts not only in Afghanistan but elsewhere also.
Now why does this hold prominence to highlight their achievements? Did anyone imagine that something like this performance would come from a war-ravaged nation like Afghanistan? I would not be surprised if say Ireland or Scotland would emerge to play top-class cricket or say for that matter UAE the oil-rich country which is capable of buying top football clubs of Europe couldn’t produce a single cricketer of their own, by virtue of gathering cricketers from all over they formed a team but that went in disarray. Money alone cannot be a factor if other important factors which are inbuilt — like talent, resilience, perseverance, and Passion are embedded in you then who can stop you.
This emergence of the Afghan cricket team may give hope to lots of sports aspirants in the country to follow in their footsteps. No country would be loved to be known for the wrong reasons especially when reformers in the guise of sportspersons would want to change the face of the nation. Am hesitant but would like to say the women’s power of this nation will be bubbling with enthusiasm to display their worth and this is the perfect platform made for them by their cricket team.
Players like Rashid Khan, Gurbazz, Azmatullah, and Zardan have been such good ambassadors of the game they have literally made a big fan base in India and the ICC and BCCI should take note of this talent and invest more in bringing this nation to the next level to make Asia a bigger cricketing power. They are an example to emulate who rose from ruins to Glory. Three cheers to this promising bunch of cricketers from Afghanistan.
The author is an independent writer.
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