BarcelonaWhen the Afghan national team made its World Cup debut in defeating Scotland, no one took to the streets of Kabul to celebrate the victory, as happened not long ago every time a victory came. Taliban spokesmen, on the other hand, congratulated the players on social media, even though they had won under a banner that they themselves have burned. The selection is moved when a hymn sung by the new regime, that of pre-Taliban Afghanistan, is played. Cricket selection has become a kind of time capsule that keeps a failed state alive.
“Before the Taliban came to power for the second time, cricket was by far the most successful sport in Afghanistan,” says Deivarayan Muthu, an Indian journalist specializing in the sport. When Kabul fell, the team was already preparing for the World Cup these days in the United Arab Emirates. Everyone took it for granted that the cricket was over. But if this weekend the Afghans defeat New Zealand in the final match of the group stage, they have options to reach the semi-finals of a World Cup for the first time. A small miracle.
In Afghanistan the first cricket match was played in 1839, but it was British troops, the protagonists. Those were the years when the British still didn’t know they would be one more on the long list of defeated empires in Afghanistan. And the sport did not take root. To understand the success of modern Afghan cricket, one must go to the refugee camps of Pakistan. “The young Afghans who fled the war in the 1990s learned this sport in Pakistan, where cricket is by far the most popular sport. They learned, improved and some of them reached the big leagues. Many , in fact, they have never lived in Afghanistan, ”Muthu explains. At the time, Afghans called him a “Pakistani.” contemptuously who played cricket and earned about two dollars a week to play in modest teams on the other side of the border. The Afghan federation would be founded in 1995 with the return home of many of these families returning with a new sport under their arm, but the first rise to power of the Taliban stopped it all, initially, but eventually “cricket went being the only sport authorized by the Taliban, “says Muthu, who adds,” In fact, the team was invited to play friendlies in Pakistan just when the Americans invaded the country, in 2001. ” When the Taliban fell, the cricket took a giant step forward. Some of its players have signed very lucrative contracts in India, a league was created and stadiums were built in all provinces, and an estimated one million Afghans played cricket. The best players became celebrities, with sponsors and fame. And as requested by the International Federation, a women’s team was also created.
“The rules of the International Cricket Association allow the expulsion of a federation that does not have a women’s team, so with the return of the Taliban to power it seemed that the Afghans would be expelled from the tournament, as the women’s team had to disappear,” he says. Muthu. But the new president chosen by the Taliban to command the Afghan federation, Azizullah Fazli, told Al-Jazeera that women could continue to play cricket. “There is no order to ban women’s sports, especially cricket. We have a team of 18-year-old girls. We just have to respect religion, which does not allow a certain way of dressing,” she said. Many of the players have fled abroad, so many experts consider it a gesture to save the men’s team, which was the last to arrive at the World Cup due to visa problems. Some players have decided to give up the selection, such as Rashid Khan, one of the best pitchers, for fear of reprisals. And is that before each game, the anthem sounds and the flag of a state that does not exist right now appears. The anthem and flag of Afghanistan defeated by the Taliban. On the day of the tournament debut, when Scotland was defeated, five players cried as the anthem sounded.
The former president of the Federation, who fled the country, explained to the press these days that “cricket does not represent any party, any ideology. It represents what Afghanistan can achieve if it is united, ”said Shafiqullah Stanikzai. The team captain, Mohammad Nabi, explained in a press conference that they just want to “give joy to the people”. Almost no players lived in Afghanistan before the Taliban came to power, but they all have families there. “This is the team with the biggest heart I’ve ever seen in my life,” says coach, South African Lance Klusener. Considered one of the best players in history – he was chosen MVP of the 1999 World Cup, when he made South Africa almost reach the final – Klusener has spent the last two years training his players for Zoom, first for the pandemic and then by the rise to power of the Taliban. “They want to show that they can overcome. They want to give joy, to vindicate themselves. It’s like a fairy tale, for the successes achieved with so few resources,” he said before the match where they almost defeated Pakistan, one of the favorite teams to win the tournament.
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