From India's largest newsroom, I'm Arun George and this is the
Times of India podcast. Everybody here is on their feet
and that is naked Ben Maxwell. Unbelievable.
The most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket.
Staggering. Absolutely.
And he should not have to walk off the park.
He should. Be Yes, that performance by
Glenn Maxwell was the best ever played in a One Day
International. But let's not forget that before
he kicked off that inning, Australia was struggling against
one of the most notable teams in this World Cup.
It's a squad that includes Rashid Khan, Ramanullah Gurbaz,
Ibrahim Zadran, Hashmatullah Shahidi and Asmathullah Omar
Zai. If the 1992 World Cup was all
about South Africa, this World Cup is all about Afghanistan.
The team from a country reeling from an earthquake and mass
migrations from Pakistan at the time of this recording are
technically just to win away from qualifying for the
semifinals. Unfortunately, out of the three
teams in that race, they have the lowest chances of
qualifying. That's a shame for the team that
beat world champions England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the
Netherlands. In fact, if it hadn't been for a
man named Glenn Maxwell and an initial loss to Bangladesh in
the tournament, they had a very good chance of making it to the
semifinals. But what explains A-Team from
one of the poorest countries in the world punching well above
their weight in world cricket? To understand that, my colleague
Pinaki Chakraborty spoke with Washington based journalist and
author Jafar Hahn who has been writing about Afghan cricket
since it began playing Afghan cricket.
Jafar's book titled 3 Century Cricket History in the World in
Afghanistan is one of the best books to read if you want an
insight on cricket in a country where the sport is not just a
game in today's episode. Jafar talks with Pinaki about
the rise of cricket in Afghanistan, how the Taliban
view cricket and the biggest takeaways from the tournament.
The interview was recorded, incidentally, just before
Australia beat Afghanistan and cemented their place in the semi
finals. Jafar says that when Afghanistan
joined the International Cricket Council, there was no cricket
ground or any other infrastructure in the country.
So the first generation of cricketers were those who
learned to play in refugee camps in Pakistan.
Those who learn cricket in the Fuji camps in camp to
Afghanistan to play for Afghanistan.
So in my book History of Cricketing, I categorize like
Afghan players into two generation, the first generation
and the second generation. So the first generation like,
they struggled very hard, they worked very hard and they
believed in themselves and they had like self-confidence.
At the time, the 2001 World Trade Center attacks hadn't
taken place and the Taliban was still in power.
Jaffar says the Taliban didn't raise too many objections to the
rise of cricket because many of them were fans of the game
themselves. Jaffar says that given the
limitations they had, the first Afghan team had little beyond
dreams of making it big. Most of Taliban, they used to
live in Pakistan and they know how to play cricket.
They have been watching India and Bangladesh, Zealand,
Pakistan playing cricket. They love cricket.
They are not against the game of cricket.
So during the first term of Taliban, this Taliban didn't
believe that Afghanistan will reach this level.
They say, OK, a few people are here and they're just trying to
play a game of cricket. So let them play a lot.
At Murray, he was determined that he could bring
international cricket to Afghanistan.
He told me, like when he started Kirkland in Afghanistan, that
people in Kabul, they didn't know what is cricket and they
thought this is Pakistani game and these people, these
refugees, they are bringing a Pakistani game to Afghan land.
And there were a strong oppositions towards them, but
they were determined and they started cricket.
At that time Afghanistan didn't have like even a small ground
off cricket and they were playing on the streets like in
some ground off schools. And there were only one ground
in Kabul, in a place we call it Wazir Akbar Khan.
Near British embassy and these players, the first generation
Aladdin Nuri and his teammates, they were playing in Wazir Akbar
Khan. They started from there but they
believe that they will make it happen like it in that you you
can see now. There are international stars
now. But things changed considerably
in Afghanistan after 2000. After the formation of AUS
backed Republic. The Taliban seized power again
in 2021. The Afghan team presently plays
under a flag that is not recognized by the Taliban
anymore. The Taliban are against various
forms of arts and culture. But cricket?
Well, cricket gets a free pass. Jaffer tells Pinaki that all the
players in the Afghan team presently have family in
Afghanistan. He also says that over the
years, many Afghan cricketers have had to oblige fans from the
ranks of the Taliban. One category of players, they
don't live in Afghanistan because they are very busy
playing franchise, for example Rashid Gurbas, Mujib.
So they live in Dubai and when they finish with IPL they go to
Big Bash. When they finish with Big Bash,
they go to Vitality Blast. When they finish with Vitality
Blast they go to PSL. So they are very busy but they
have family back home. So when I talked to them, they
said like we have no problem with the current government or
with the current situation plus it one of the Afghan.
And players told me like that this is a tradition in
Afghanistan. During the eat people are going
to each other home and having some tea and discussion.
And he said, like I had dozens of Taliban, they were visiting
me and they were feeling selfie with me and just come to see me,
nothing else. And they will say like you,
player doing really good, be proud of you, keep it up and
that, this and that, even during the Republic.
I remember once I was writing an article about Afghanistan Turkic
and I contacted as a journalist we could contact Taliban
fighters. At that time I contacted Taliban
spokesperson the Behala Mujahid and I asked him, hey, I have a
question about this Kirk and he said we are in war but we have
no problem with Kirkuk. So even during the war they were
supporting the Afghan Kirku team.
In my book I mentioned another story from Karim Khan Sadiq.
During the three days of ceasefire, I think it was in
2019, it was during the war between the Taliban and the
Afghanistan government and there was a three days ceasefire,
Karim Sadiq told me. Like he went to the area under
the Taliban. One of like, the Taliban
fighters come and started firing, celebrating the arrival
of Karim Sadiq, he said. Like, oh, I'm big fan of you.
I I'm really happy to see you. There is love for Kirkuk among
Taliban, especially the young generation of Taliban.
I don't think there have been a problem with the with the
Kirkuk. We interviewed the chairman of
Afghanistan Kirkuk, Burmidos Ashraf, He said like we we have
the Taliban government support. They are not interfering in our
affairs. They are just telling us like
you guys are doing great job in Tibetop and if you think we can
be of any help just let us know. Where does the team function out
of? Does it function out of Kabul or
Dubai? No different like the player who
are based in Afghanistan, they function in in Afghanistan and
the chairman and other high-ranking officials of the
ECB who based in Kabul, they are functioning peers.
They have a home grown in in UAE.
So far they are international matches, They go to UAE, but
they are bases in Kabul and they have an international ground in
Kabul, Kabul ground. They do their practice station,
they do their warm up matches, they do the everything in Kabul,
Afghanistan and other provinces too.
In a country where thousands depend on Eid, Jaffer says the
Taliban don't want to mess with the sport that seems to have
support that goes beyond all other boundaries.
Afghanistan Kirkland Board is not like a part of the Taliban
government. People who are heading the board
are not Taliban like Chairman of Afghanistan Kirkland Board is
the former Kirkland Player of Afghanistan National Team and
their coaches are not Taliban. The important thing is Kirkland
in Afghanistan doesn't belong to any political party.
It doesn't belong to Taliban. It doesn't belong to.
The former government but yes it does belong to anyone, to any
Afghan. Either it is Talib or non Talib
or any kind of Afghan. The Taliban and other political
parties know that if they get involved in Turkic, there will
be some strong decision by the International Turkic Council and
by the neighboring countries like India, Pakistan and other
countries. They know that.
How has cricket managed to enrich the differences between
the various tribes? And the people in Afghanistan.
Well, Kirkland is the only port in Afghanistan that like you can
find in every province of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has 34 provinces and there are over 6000 registered
Cricket Club with ACB and you can find Cricket Club in
Panchsir in Iraq like neighboring Iran.
So Iran is good in soccer, but they didn't don't have any.
Any game of cricket. But cricket is being played in
Hirad, in Mazar, even in Bamiyan.
People in Afghanistan, they believe Afghanistan is doing
very good in Kirkuk and Afghans has natural talent in Kirkuk
like for example Mujibin Rashid. But Rashid has never trained in
any professional cricket Academy to learn how to evolve.
Google you can find. Hundreds of players like Rashid
and like like Gurbas. So having this kind of talent in
in your country of course if you want or not.
So it helps you to promote or to develop.
I was in in Australia last year for the the coverage of T220
World Cup in Australia. There is a big Hazara community.
Hazara is not. I have seen hundreds of Hazara
were coming, cheering and supporting Afghanistan cricket
team. I interviewed a very old Hazara
Afghan and he told me, my son, I don't know what is cricket, but
I'm here just to support Afghanistan.
So cricket unites Afghanistan. Cricket is like playing a
crucial role in unity and in giving hopes in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, so we have different tribes, so they don't
things like, oh, people from met tribe is not playing in this
team. So this is not my team.
No, it's not this case. They think this is Afghanistan
team and they represent Afghanistan Afghan players.
They respect every tribe and they have support of every tribe
in Afghanistan. We have a good player from east
part of Afghanistan and from South part of Afghanistan like
Burbas and Ibrahim is from South part of Afghanistan to
Afghanistan E part of Afghanistan.
We have no players from Hira now, but maybe after this World
Cup we will be having like good players from other provinces,
from other tribes too. Jaffa recounts an incident that
shows just how much people love the sport in the country.
He says even during the World Cup, one would have never
guessed that the footage emerging after the defeat of
Pakistan was from Afghanistan. I remember there was a suicide
attack during Ishpa Giza domestic cricket league.
There was a match in Kabul. Ground in A suicide attack
happened. And people didn't stop.
They said like, no, we don't care about any suicide attack.
We don't care about anything. We just want to go to watch
Afghan players. We just want to go to enjoy our
game. Cricket is the only hopes and
the only thing that brings smiles on their faces.
So it it is more than a game, more than cricket in
Afghanistan, to be honest. Afghanistan just beat Pakistan
in the World Cup. Afghanistan didn't sleep at that
night and I received hundreds of widows from different parts of
Afghanistan. People were dancing during the
Taliban. They were dancing, they were
playing music, they were chanting, they didn't sleep.
If there is fighting or work or if.
There is peace, so cricket will be on in Afghanistan and people
will watch it and people will support it.
Jaffa says this World Cup was expected to be better than
previous ones for Afghanistan, given the experienced players
that the team has, as well as the familiarity many players
have with Indian conditions. But he says even die hard fans
like him did not expect this much from the squad.
A person who is following Afghanistan cricket like for
almost 2 decades now. In writing about them I thought
like Afghanistan maybe win two or three matches and Sri Lanka
and Bangladesh were in my mind like so we can beat this in our
Netherlands of course, but when they beat England it was it was
breaking news to me. I'm not saying upset because I I
don't like this this term to use for Afghanistan cricket now.
And when they beat Pakistan, like, oh, I can say like, oh,
now they can go farther. I can see a different Afghan
Turkey team now. And this is a big history for
Afghanistan. I can see this team has like
strong unity and spirit and also desire to men and determination.
A lot of things going on in Afghanistan.
Earthquake hit Afghanistan really badly and people are
really sad and also recently another wave of refugee like
experts from Pakistan to Afghanistan and these things
like motivated Afghan players who work hard to bring smiles on
Afghan faces. Jaffa says the most pleasant
surprise for him in this World Cup was the performance of the
batters. Before the World Cup, everyone
was talking about Afghanistan bonding.
Of course, Afghanistan spin side is very strong, but after the
World Cup, you can see like a very solid batting side.
Hashmat, Rahmat, Ikramin, Adamat.
So they changed the trend, they changed the face of Kirkit, they
changed the Afghanistan Kirkit team in this World Cup.
Jaffer says the success of international stars like Rashid
Khan has resulted in creating a lot of support for the
cricketing ecosystem in the country compared to when the
first Afghan team started playing.
Jaffer says this World Cup is going to herald a new chapter in
the history of Afghan cricket. Even if Afghanistan plays
semifinal, I can guarantee you we will be having like dozens of
players like Rashid track Gurbas track Mujib in 5-10 years.
These people are inspiring generation.
If they play semi final or if they win the World Cup they can
do it, they can do it. So there will be a game changer
for Afghanistan forever. Then Afghanistan cricket will be
not like the the one that we saw 5-10 years ago.
This World Cup started just opened another chapter in
Afghanistan cricket history. For the first time in a World
Cup game they have won four matches so far and this is a new
chapter for the Afghanistan capitan, for future of
Afghanistan. Then I'm sure we will be having
very, very talent player in 5-10 years in Afghanistan.
Today's episode was produced by Jayaraj Singh and Anuja Singh.
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