Since the evacuation of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan after the Taliban swept into Kabul last month, there have been fears that cricket and other sports would be hit.
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has hampered and stopped many diplomatic ties between the country and the world. However, cricket might not be one of them.
The Taliban government has approved the first test match for the country since coming to power. “We have got approval to send the team to Australia,” the chief executive of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, Hamid Shinwari, told AFP.
It’s a policy shift from the previous Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan between 1996-2001. During that stint, most forms of the entertainment were banned.
Interestingly, the match will not be played in Afghanistan but Hobart in Australia. To be played from November 27-December 1, it was scheduled for last year but was put off due to the Covid-19 pandemic and international travel restrictions. It will be Afghanistan’s first Test in Australia.
Before the Australia tour, the Afghanistan team will feature in the T20 World Cup, to be held in the United Arab Emirates from October 17-November 15.
Shinwari also confirmed Afghanistan’s Under-19 cricket team will tour Bangladesh for a bi-lateral series later this month.
Since the evacuation of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan after the Taliban swept into Kabul last month there have been fears that cricket and other sports would be hit. But ACB officials categorically said that cricket was supported by the Taliban.
Cricket was barely known in Afghanistan until the early 2000s, and its rapid rise in popularity was linked with conflict — the sport was picked up in Pakistan by Afghan refugees who then seeded it in their home country. But the national team has enjoyed a meteoric rise on the international scene since then, gaining coveted Test status in 2017 and now ranked among the top 10 sides in the world in the one-day international and T20 formats. In the last 20 years, it has also emerged as a powerful symbol of national unity in a country riven by civil war and ethnic conflict.
Afghanistan’s star player Rashid Khan was last year named the Men’s T20I Player of the Decade by the International Cricket Council.
