Cricket For Peace

The Afghan cricket team has come along in leaps and bounds in the last year.

Last year in May I went to watch them play in the World Cricket League Division 5 championship.  They ended up beating Jersey in the final and progressing to division 4.

I got to meet the team through friends of mine that are making a documentary about the team’s journey towards the cricket world cup 2011.  The team were delightful and so friendly.

You should all check out the trailer for the documentary – because it looks awesome – http://www.outoftheashes.tv/trailer.htm

After winning in Jersey the Afghan team was feted back home and a Pashtu journalist for the BBC told me that the cricket team was uniting all sections of Afghan society.  Everyone was proud of the team.

Since then the team has cruised to victory in the division 4 tournament in Tanzania last year, not losing a single match.

Then a couple of weeks ago in Argentina, they managed, after a dodgy start to win again and make it through to the world cup qualifiers in South Africa.

http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/wcl/content/current/story/387176.html

You can read a far better article about the team by one of the film-makers here.

As the article says, the Afghan cricket team is a ‘team called hope’.  Hope that they can make their country proud, hope that they can become successful sportsmen and hope that they can play in the world cup on the subcontinent.  When I first start watching them, I wasn’t sure they’d make it but now, I have faith, Inshallah that Afghanistan will play in the world cup.  And I will be there to watch them.

I’ve added a link on the sidebar here to a BBC radio programme on the Afghan cricket team (From our own correspondent) – check it out, the feature starts at 17 minutes.  Check out it.

Afghanistan Zinbabad!!!