Cricket in Afghanistan

Although far from mainstream eyes in many of the world’s major powers, given its almost blanket popularity across the Subcontinent, cricket is the world’s second most popular sport.

While actual sporting interest in the World Cup that began this past weekend (held in Australia and New Zealand) will be limited to those countries with a prominent cricket culture, there is one major facet of the tournament that should be noted by foreign affairs enthusiasts.

The World Cup is a contest between 14 teams. The “Big 10” (Full Members of the International Cricket Council, or ICC) are automatic qualifiers – these are the countries that have the capacity to play competitively against each other in test matches – the five-day version of the game (the World Cup is a “Limited Overs” tournament). These countries are: England, India, Pakistan, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and the West Indies (an amalgamation of the Caribbean Islands plus Guyana).

If you are not from one of these regions of the world you may think your country does not play cricket, but you would quite possibly be wrong. The other four places in the World Cup are obtained through a series of World Cricket League round-robin tournaments between various divisions until four teams remain and earn the right to play against the Big 10.

This year, the heavily English influenced countries of Ireland and Scotland have qualified. The UAE, with its large population of South Asian expats, has also done so. But the fourth is by far the most interesting, and important.

Having only formed a national cricket team in 2001, the rise of Afghanistan, and the subsequent popularity of the sport in the country has become a story of great positivity and hope.

The inspiring and moving documentary Out Of The Ashes follows the Afghanistan team’s trajectory from 2008, and into the lower echelons of the cricketing world (Division 5), against teams such as the Cayman Islands and Jersey, to falling just short of being one of the four countries to qualify for the 2011 World Cup.

During the 1990s, the Taliban tolerated the sport, since it conformed with their dress standards. However, it wasn’t until after the U.S. invasion, when those displaced by the Soviet invasion started returning home from refugee camps in Pakistan, that cricket really began to take off in Afghanistan.

East of the Durand Line the sport becomes an obsession, and young boys growing up around Peshawar would undoubtedly find themselves immersed in the game. This gave the team an ample supply of skilled and schooled players who were able to be transformed into a professional team very quickly. It must be noted that Pashtun tenacity, which world powers for centuries have underestimated to their cost, could also be considered a factor in the team’s success.