Afghanistan’s journey to become a Test-playing nation is fascinating

It was truly a wonderful moment when Afghanistan made their Test debut at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Earlier last month, Ireland also had made their Test debut against Pakistan with a game at home in Ireland.

So in the space of one month, the cricketing fraternity have two new Testplaying member countries. Afghanistan’s story is much more moving than Ireland as there is no chance as yet of having any cricket in that country and all their international appearances will have to be outside their country because of the uncertain security situation there.

To come to the Test level despite all these hardships is something really special and that’s why there were tears in the eyes of many a hardened former international cricketer when the toss was made and then both the teams lined up for the national anthems before play began. It was a tough first session for the Afghanistan as Shikhar Dhawan mauled their bowlers to become the first Indian batsman to score a century before lunch.

His opening partner Murali Vijay made a subdued start but also went on to get a classy century and Lokesh Rahul continued his top form in the IPL and also got a half-century. The Afghanistan bowlers showed great heart and never gave up trying and were rewarded with more wickets in the final session of play.

Ireland, too, have had their political troubles but there’s been a fair degree of peace for quite a while there and so they have been able to have domestic cricket and leagues of their own. Having said that most, if not all, of their international players play in the English County championship and so get to play a lot of cricket in all formats and have a lot more experience and exposure than Afghanistan players have had.

ICC needs to be vigilant

It will be interesting to see what the situation will be for their international players when they play County cricket, for with Ireland getting Test membership their players can’t play any longer in English County cricket as local players but now will have to be treated as overseas players. This could well affect their earnings and how their players react to that will be interesting to see.

England have always had the best of this situation where they could pick Irish players to play for England and these Irish players could then go back to playing for Ireland once England did not require their services or found out that they were not as good as was believed for Test match and limited overs international cricket. These players did not have to wait for any length of time to qualify back for Ireland and this is where the ICC has to be now vigilant.

Already, there is talk in England of reducing the qualifying period to enable the talented Joffra Archer to play for England in next year’s World Cup. The ICC qualifying period, if a player has represented another country in the Under-19 events and then wants to play for another country, is seven years and by that token, Archer will have to wait another three years before he qualifies for England — but England are apparently trying to somehow get that reduced.

Meanwhile, Scotland’s surprise win over England has again raised the cry about the number of teams for next year’s World Cup. These people have forgotten that there was a tournament among associate members and the two of the bottom ranked Test playing countries to qualify for next year’s World Cup. Afghanistan and West Indies qualified by getting to the finals.

The point here is simple that if Ireland and Scotland, from where most of the noise comes about the number of teams for next year’s World Cup, were not good enough to qualify in an associate members’ event — then how can they even think in terms of playing with the big boys in the World Cup?

It’s like subcontinent teams asking to be included in the football World Cup!

To come to the Test level despite all these hardships is something really special and that’s why there were tears in the eyes of many a former international cricketer during the toss.