Despite blast, Hollioake vows to return to Kabul ‘in a heartbeat’
Former England captain Adam Hollioake says he would return to Kabul “in a heartbeat” despite feeling the blast when a suicide bomber blew himself up just yards from a Twenty20 tournament in the Afghan capital.
Hollioake, who is coaching one of six teams in Afghanistan’s domestic Shpageeza Cricket League, heard a
“loud bang” three overs into the second innings of the match between his Bost Defenders and rivals Mis-eAinak Knights on September 13. “I thought it was a big firecracker or something,” the Australian-born Hollioake said. “But then when we had the after-effect... I could feel the vibration of the blast go through my body.
“When I saw a couple of the players... actually sprinting off the pitch I realised it was serious.”
Three people including a policeman were killed and five others were wounded when the suicide bomber detonated himself at a police checkpoint just outside the Kabul International Cricket Stadium where hundreds of spectators were watching the game. No one inside the cricket ground was wounded in the attack claimed by the Islamic State’s local Khorasan province affiliate and play was only briefly interrupted, highlighting how depressingly familiar such assaults have become in the war-weary country.
“It was one large blast so I didn’t feel like we were under attack but obviously I didn’t know so I had to be cautious,” said Hollioake.
The explosion on day three of the tournament rattled foreign players, coaches and commentators unused to such attacks and some left Afghanistan in fear of their safety -- including the three foreigners playing for the Bost Defenders. But Hollioake decided to stay after receiving assurances from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that security for the foreign visitors would be tightened.