Every Afghan blast shakes them to core

MUMBAI: Every time there is a blast in Afghanistan, it sends shivers down the spine of these three Afghanistan cricketers who represent the country’s disabled team.

Abdullah Liwal, Shafiqullah Samim and Bashir were part of the 15-member Afghanistan disabled cricket team that recently played a T20 series against India in Greater Noida, near the Capital. The hosts won 2-1.

Although far away from their battle-scarred homeland, they revisit the trauma of the day they fell victims to bomb blasts that left them disabled at a very young age every time a blast in reported in Afghanistan.

Around 80 people died and scores were left injured in a blast in Kabul’s diplomatic enclave on Wednesday.

LUCKY CRICKET BREAK

For the three cricketers, life would have ended in obscurity but for the Afghanistan Cricket Board conducting trials for disabled cricketers in 2011. It gave them a new lease of life.

Shafiqullah lost his left hand when he was five years old, after he was injured during the Russian occupation, which lasted from 1979 to 1989.

“After losing my hand, I thought what will I do now? Everything came crashing down. I was taking every breath, but I never felt like I was live,” Shafiqullah said, recalling the incident with the help of an interpreter.