At midnight on December 24, 1979, 280 military aircraft of the Soviet Union landed in Kabul in Afghanistan and about 25 thousand soldiers captured Kabul. Planes started dropping bombs in Nangarhar area of Afghanistan. A man living there with his four year old
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This four year old child was growing up in the camp itself. He was interested in cricket. He used to watch Pakistan team playing cricket. In the 90s, Pakistan was intoxicated with cricket. This intoxication reached its peak when Pakistan won the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Then this child formed a team in the refugee camp. This was the first cricket team of Afghanistan. The name of this child was Taj Malik.
While living in the camp, Taj dreamed that Afghanistan would have a cricket team, which would play all over the world. He told the Afghan cricketers playing domestic cricket for Pakistan, let us form our own team. Let us go to Kabul and play, but no one was ready to listen to him. On the other hand, Soviet Russia had left Afghanistan. Taj Malik returned to Afghanistan and formed a cricket team. Afghanistan’s cricket was born on the soil of Pakistan, but India has nurtured it and made it bigger.
In Bhaskar Explainer, you will know the journey of Afghanistan cricket, which made it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup for the first time by defeating big teams like Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh…
Taj Malik, known as the ‘Father of Afghan Cricket’, on the field in 2003.
Afghan cricket born between terror and war
Cricket in Afghanistan began in the 19th century during the Anglo-Afghan War when British soldiers played cricket in Kabul in the 1830s. At that time, like in India, only white people could play this game there.
With the beginning of the 90s, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had started. Due to the war, the people of Afghanistan had taken refuge in Pakistan.
Taj Malik has earned the title of ‘Father of Afghan Cricket’ due to the hard work he put in to establish the Afghanistan cricket team while staying here.
Taj Malik systematically recruited those Afghan players who played domestic cricket for Pakistan. Taj would go to every player and ask them to play cricket in Kabul.
During this time Taj Malik got the support of Allah Dad Noori. Like Taj, Noori also wanted Afghanistan to have its own cricket team. Taj Malik founded the Afghanistan Cricket Club, whose team played against other Pakistani cricket clubs in Peshawar, Pakistan. Gradually the game of this team kept improving. In 1995, the Afghan Cricket Federation was formed with the help of the Afghan Olympic Committee. Noori was made the President of Afghanistan Cricket Federation and Malik was made the General Secretary. Malik also became the first head coach of Afghanistan.
Afghan refugees playing cricket in Khorasan Refugee Camp, Peshawar.
The game that Taliban recognized for the first time
Cricket entered Afghanistan in the presence of a strict Taliban government. The Taliban government, which runs on Sharia law, had initially banned all sports including cricket. The Taliban accepted cricket because it covers the entire body. Players remain in very little contact with each other, that is, they touch each other very little. In the year 2000, cricket became the first sport to receive recognition from the Taliban.
According to ESPN, a big reason for getting approval from Taliban was that Taliban people also used to play cricket in refugee camps. In the year 2001, Afghanistan got recognition as an affiliate member of ICC.
Rashid-Nabi left the country after the arrival of Taliban
On August 15, 2021, the Taliban again captured Afghanistan. During this time, three star players of Afghanistan cricket team, Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman had gone to England to play in ‘The Hundred Tournament’. Many remaining players were trapped in the war zone. Rashid and Nabi posted on social media and appealed to the top leaders around the world to save Afghanistan and its cricket in this atmosphere of chaos.
Taliban banned women’s cricket, but talked about supporting male players. The Taliban said that ‘Afghans started playing cricket when the Taliban first ruled, we will support this game in future also.’
On September 9, 2021, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announced the squad for the ICC T20 World Cup. Rashid Khan was made the captain of the team, but Rashid resigned from the captaincy. Rashid wrote on social media that the selectors and ACB did not ask my opinion for choosing the team.
Due to security reasons, bowler Rashid Khan and all-rounder Mohammad Nabi left Kabul and started living in Dubai with their family. Even after this, the remaining players continued to practice while living in Afghanistan.
India ‘second home’ for Afghanistan cricket
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) provided a lot of support to promote Afghan cricket. With his help, Afghanistan became an associate member of ICC in 2013. After this the Afghanistan team started receiving funds from ICC. Financial support boosted the morale of the Afghan cricket team and the team performed brilliantly in the 2015 World Cup.
This was the period when tension between Afghan cricket and Taliban was increasing. Even though the Taliban did not ban men from playing cricket, no funds were being given to the team. Players had stopped getting training facilities.
Afghanistan cricket was under threat, but in this difficult time, BCCI extended a helping hand towards Afghan cricket. BCCI gave grounds to Afghanistan team to practice in India. Afghan cricket team started playing in India.
Afghanistan team practicing.
In 2016, Noida’s International Cricket Stadium became the home ground of Afghanistan. Here Afghan players got India’s world class coaching facility. Also got to learn from experienced players who played for the Indian team. This brought considerable improvement in Afghan cricket.
Also played home international match against Ireland in Greater Noida in 2017. The result was that Afghanistan got the status of Test team in 2017. BCCI invited the then President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani to watch the team’s first Test match in Bengaluru.
After becoming a part of the Test Cricket League, Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun became the home ground of Afghanistan. Afghanistan also hosted a T20 series against Bangladesh in Dehradun.
In 2019, following a request from the Afghanistan Cricket Board, BCCI made Ekana Stadium in Lucknow the home stadium of the Afghan cricket team. In 2017, India built a cricket stadium in Kandahar, Afghanistan. After the end of T20 World Cup 2024, ODI and T20 series is to be played between Afghanistan and Bangladesh. For this, India will once again become the home ground of Afghanistan.
IPL gave a big platform to Afghan players
The world’s biggest T20 league, IPL, gave a big platform and opportunity to Afghan players. In 2017, spin bowler Rashid Khan became the first Afghan player to play in the IPL. After this, players like Mohammad Nabi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Naveen Ul Haq performed brilliantly in world cricket with the experience of IPL. Apart from this, former Indian cricketers like Lalchand Rajput and Manoj Prabhakar have also been the coaches of Afghanistan. His current mentor is former Indian player Ajay Jadeja.
Afghan wicket-keeper batsman Rahmanullah Gurbaz after winning IPL 2024.
Australia refused to play with Afghanistan 3 times
Afghanistan created a big upset by defeating Australia in the T20 World Cup. This is the same Australia team which had refused to play the series against Afghanistan thrice since 2021. For the first time in 2021, Australia canceled the one-off Test match with Afghanistan in Hobart. Refused to play 3 ODI series against Australia in March 2023. Regarding this, the Australian Cricket Board said that the condition of women is not good in Taliban occupied Afghanistan. They are not maintained properly. They are treated unfairly. After this, the Afghanistan Board had asked the team to conduct a series in UAE, but Australia did not even agree to this.
Cricket is the only source of happiness for Afghan people: Rashid Khan
In this matter, Afghan captain Rashid Khan had said, ‘We want to play cricket because this is the only source of happiness for the people in Afghanistan. If you take this away from us, how will we celebrate? In 2023, Rashid had warned Australia and said that if Australia cannot come to Afghanistan then I too cannot go for the Big Bash. Australia had also postponed the T20 series to be held in early 2024.
Local people celebrating in Kabul after Afghanistan’s victory.
Ajay Jadeja taught to fight with courage
The credit for the all-round performance of the Afghanistan team goes to team mentor Ajay Jadeja. Afghanistan Cricket Board had appointed Jadeja as its mentor in September 2023. This was the time when Team Afghanistan came to India for preparation. After Ajay’s joining, there has been a tremendous change in the morale of the Afghan team. The players have become so mentally strong that it does not matter which team is in front of them. They just enter the field to give their 100%.
Language also came in the way between Ajay and the Afghan team, but the hunger for victory removed this problem. Most of the players of the Afghan team speak Pashto. In such a situation, many times when Ajay would say things to boost the morale of the team, they would not understand. In such a situation, Ajay took the help of a translator. Other players of the team also started translating. Ultimately, the team’s training with Jadeja was finalized within fifteen days.
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi says that Jadeja did not tell us how to play. He used to teach us how to keep our mind cool when there is a critical situation. He always trained us to play calmly under pressure. Jadeja showed us how to play under pressure. He never told us to throw the ball like this, do this, do that. He just focused on making us mentally strong. It is because of them that we have fought tooth and nail against many big teams and won.
After defeating Australia, Ajay Jadeja wrote on social media that I have already said that the day we defeat Afghanistan, the Afghanistan team will become big. Then we made Australia fall also. Congrats….
