Afghanistan Slumdog Millionaires Target Cricket World Cup Place
- Bloomberg
03/31/2009
By Grant Clark


Afghanistan’s national cricket team, started five years ago by former refugees after the Taliban’s ouster, is closing on a place at the 2011 World Cup.

Players have become national heroes and received gifts of land and property after securing a spot in the final qualifying tournament in South Africa starting tomorrow.

Like the Indian game show contestant who escaped poverty in the Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire,” captain Nowroz Mangal and his teammates have risen from Pakistani refugee camps to win three events in seven months and lift the mood of a nation mired in a third decade of conflict. A top-four spot at the 12-team event would take Afghanistan to cricket’s biggest tournament.

“We want to give a good name to our country through cricket because the people of Afghanistan have spent a lot of time at war,” Nowroz, 24, said by phone from Kabul last month on a day when suicide bombers killed 26 people in the capital.

Cricket’s rise is entwined with the nation’s troubles. The exodus of refugees to Pakistan during the 1979-1989 Soviet occupation first brought displaced Afghan children into contact with the sport.

Batsman Raees Ahmadzai recalled kicking tennis balls about a camp in the border city of Peshawar where he was born, dreaming of playing at the soccer World Cup. That all changed when Pakistan became cricket world champion in 1992.

“Everywhere was cricket after that,” said Raees, who gave his age as 24 and chuckled when asked for his date of birth, explaining that records weren’t kept in the camps.

Banned

While the Taliban banned the sport after it took power in the mid-1990s, the most talented Afghan kids honed their skills at clubs in Pakistan before returning after the regime was toppled by the U.S.-led coalition in 2001.

About 2,500 Afghans now play regularly in 13 of the country’s 21 provinces, mostly on dusty hillside tracks, said Iqbal Sikander, who heads cricket development in Afghanistan for the Asian Cricket Council.

Cricket academies have opened in Kabul and Kandahar, while the nation’s first proper cricket stadium is scheduled for completion this year. Currently, the squad has to travel five hours to Peshawar for practice games.

“Cricket is the No. 1 game right now in Afghanistan,” said Sikander, a member of Pakistan’s 1992 World Cup-winning squad, by phone from Lahore. “It’s taken on like wildfire.”

The spark has come from the national team.

Former England batsman Geoff Boycott said the players “had done brilliantly with all they’d been through” to win the World Cricket League’s fifth and lowest division in Jersey in June -- yet that was just the beginning.

‘Huge Support’

Afghanistan, coached by former Pakistan player Kabir Khan, topped the fourth division in Tanzania in October before sealing a place at the April 1-19 qualifying tournament by beating Cayman Islands on Jan. 31 in Buenos Aires. A similar performance in South Africa would unleash passionate celebrations back home, said Bashir Stanikzai of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation.

“Every time we come back to Kabul after a victory there is huge support: Cabinet ministers, members of parliament, the sports minister, people from Afghanistan coming to watch the players just to shake hands and celebrate,” Stanikzai said in a phone interview.

The players, whose red and blue jerseys are emblazoned with “Proud to Be an Afghan,” are on a mission to demonstrate there is more to their country than conflict, Raees said.

“We want a good relationship with the world and to show we are not warrior people,” he said.

Land Gifts

The team’s success has brought increased funds from cricket authorities -- about $115,000 a year plus grants of at least that amount to build the new stadium and train overseas. The leading 20 or so players are now full-time professionals.

A top-six finish in South Africa would earn Afghanistan the right to face higher-ranked teams in fully recognized one-day games and have performances listed in official records. A top-10 place would open the way for a $350,000 grant from cricket’s global ruling body.

Each player already received four plots of land plus an apartment in Kabul from the government as a reward, according to Stanikzai. Their increased profile has also brought dangers, with many receiving threats when they return to their provinces.

“It’s the fame because they are on TV, on billboards so they get singled out,” said Sikander, 50, who hasn’t returned to Afghanistan since 2007 for safety reasons. “The security is pretty grim at the moment.”

Afghanistan starts its bid for a World Cup berth against Denmark tomorrow in Vanderbijlpark and will also face Bermuda, Kenya, the United Arab Emirates and Netherlands in its group. Four teams from each of two groups move to the next round, from which the leading quartet will advance to the World Cup.

“We’re very happy that in a very short time we have become a top nation,” Nowroz said. “We’ve worked very hard and our mission hasn’t stopped. We want to play in the World Cup and at least beat one or two top countries.”