Afghanistan became an affiliate member of the ICC in 2001, the same year America started their aerial bombing campaigns. The fourteen years of conflict which followed devastated Afghanistan, providing the backdrop for one of the most enthralling cricketing journeys of the century: the rise of the Afghan national side.
Their rise through the World Cricket League, the competition which enables non-Test nations to qualify for the World Cup, was unprecedented: promotion after promotion brought them close to a spot at the 2011 World Cup, but they had to settle for the remarkable achievement of gaining ODI status for the first time in their short history.
They have previously appeared in the World T20 on three occasions, thus far failing to win a single match. However, their performances in qualification tournaments and in the Intercontinental Cup (they won the 2009-10 edition) have cemented Afghanistan’s reputation as one of the foremost associate nations in all forms of the game.
And in spite of all the obstacles they face, the Afghan Cricket Board is determined to pursue Test status: 2014 saw the inauguration of Afghanistan’s domestic four-day competition, intended to prepare their players for first-class cricket. It is a laudable show of commitment to the game’s longest format at a time when the priorities of other countries, such as the West Indies, appear to be shifting towards Twenty20.
Afghanistan’s preparations for the World Cup have been shaky, to say the least. They were beaten 3-1 by the UAE in a bilateral ODI series, and came second in a tri-series with Ireland and Scotland. A matter of days after collapsing to 63 all out against Scotland, a destructive 83 off 50 from young Najibullah Zadran put Afghanistan’s total beyond the reach of Ireland. You just never know what to expect from Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s chances of causing an upset in Group A will rest partly on the shoulders of injury-prone fast bowler Hamid Hassan. His knee and his back have forced him to take extensive breaks from cricket, but he can swing the ball both ways at genuine pace, and took three wickets in the victory over Ireland. His bowling could win matches, something that couldn’t be said for many bowlers even from the top Test nations.
Support for Hassan in the bowling department will come from Dawlat Zadran, Mirwais Ashraf and promising young seamer Aftab Alam. As Afghanistan are a subcontinental team, they also have plenty of options in the spin department in the form of Nabi, Samiullah Shenwari and Javed Ahmadi. The skipper shouldn’t have any trouble filling up the 50 overs.
The depth of Afghanistan’s batting is clear from the absence of Mohammad Shahzad from their touring party. Although Shahzad has scored three ODI centuries, his form has been poor of late and the selectors have opted to move on without him. Nawroz Mangal is likely to open the batting, and keeper Afsar Zazai (who scored two 50s in the UAE series) is also likely to be important. Gulbadin Naib, who scored a defiant 44 against England in Colombo which included a brutal 16-run over off Graeme Swann, also made the squad.
At Under-19 level, Afghanistan are a highly competitive and exciting team. They made the quarter-finals of the 2014 Under-19 World Cup, and their run was only ended by the eventual winners, South Africa. On the day the ICC confirmed their decision to reduce the size of the 2019 World Cup to just ten teams, effectively ending Afghanistan’s chances of competing in the tournament ever again, 14-year-old Tariq Stanikzai smashed 160* off 119 balls in an Under-19s match. That he will never get a proper chance to fulfil his potential at the top level of international cricket for Afghanistan is a damning indictment of the ICC’s treatment of associate nations.
In five or ten years’ time, when their four-day competition is established and they have had more fixtures against the full-member nations, Afghanistan could be a major force in international cricket. As it is, they may well struggle to make a huge impact on the World Cup this year. However, they have an extremely talented squad and if all of them play to the very best of their potential, even teams like England could find themselves on the wrong end of an embarrassing scoreline if they aren’t careful. Nabi could do worse than put in a phone call to Peter Borren, the Netherlands captain who oversaw the brilliant defeat of England in last year’s World T20.
Fans of associate cricket are bracing themselves for the perennial clichés that will be spouted about the non-Test-playing nations when the tournament gets underway. A few days ago, former South Africa captain Graeme Smith bemoaned the fact that associates are thrown into the World Cup every four years, arguing that their presence “undermined the status of the World Cup as ‘cricket’s iconic event.’”
Unlike Smith’s South Africa, associates are not simply thrown into the World Cup. They have to earn their place by qualifying. And far from undermining the status of the World Cup as cricket’s iconic event, the presence of teams from outside the game’s full members actually legitimises the title: for how can any tournament be called a “World Cup” if the world can’t qualify? Football and rugby have both expanded their World Cups to include teams that realistically aren’t going to stand a chance of winning.
Realistically speaking, Afghanistan are not going to win the World Cup. But ultimately, the quality of a tournament is determined by its legacy and its stories as much as by its eventual champions. By this measure, the story of how a war-ravaged country in the middle of the desert made it to the biggest tournament in world cricket will greatly enrich the 2015 World Cup. If the Big Three nations who run the ICC persist in their plan to shrink the game of cricket by shrinking the World Cup, we may never get the chance to hear how that story could end.
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