Afghans in at the deep end

– Shaken by the horrors of war, Afghanistan will take a mighty step in cricket history when captain Asghar Stanikzai leads his team out for their first ever Test match against India tomorrow.

Conflict has scarred virtually every member of the squad and they are impoverished compared with their opponents, the world’s wealthiest cricket nation.

But Stanikzai said they are determined to show their rise to a Test nation less than two decades after being recognised by the International Cricket Council in 2001 is merited.

Afghan cricket grew out of the refugee camps in Pakistan where many families were based after they fled the Afghan conflict in the 1980s and 1990s.

Now the country is producing world-beaters like 19-year-old spinner Rashid Khan.

In March, the teenager became the fastest bowler to reach 100 one-day international wickets, and is currently the world’s topranked Twenty20 bowler.

Khan was one of a handful of Afghan players in this year’s Indian Premier League and proved one of its most dangerous bowlers. He took 21 wickets for runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad, who paid $1.4 million for his services.

Afghan players got a new reminder of the horrors in their country last month when an attack on a cricket match in Khan’s home city of Jalalabad killed eight people and wounded 45.

But growing up in a tough environment where such militant attacks were common did not deter spin sensation Khan.

“My parents forbade my siblings and I to play cricket outside our home,” Khan, one of 12 children, said in a recent interview with Afghan media.

“But no amount of war stopped me from sneaking out to play cricket with my brothers.”

Former Afghanistan coach Inzamam ul-Haq, the ex-Pakistan captain, said the team’s “passion” in adversity sets them apart.

But the Afghan spinners will be up against experienced Indian rivals Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja who between them have taken 476 Test wickets. – AFP