When the pundits cast their well schooled eyes across the form guide for the 2023 World Cup, they surely had hosts India on top followed by defending champions England.
Australia, after underwhelming warm-up series against South Africa and India, were given a chance of scraping into a semi-final along with the Kiwis and Proteas. Pakistan could go undefeated or finish third last. The Netherlands and Afghanistan could raffle for ninth and 10th.
The top of table has been fairly predictable. India have the speed and the spin to confuse all-comers. Whether using a shiny new ball or a bruised pellet, it makes little difference to their penetration. Their batting line-up has quality and depth, and they are playing on pitches they know well.
But even given India’s undoubted spinning strength, they probably still don’t have the best slow bowlers in the tournament. Afghanistan have a guru, a PhD, a masters candidate and an undergraduate headed for a professorship in the mysteries of spin.
Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Noor Ahmad were perceived as four tweakers that would give the Afghans their best chance to trouble the big boys. But where do world-class spinners come from west of the Hindu Kush?
The cricket seed was planted in South Asia by the colonisers from England, who subjugated nations then installed a public service and sports fields. The neighbours over the Khyber Pass made the game their own (an Indian game invented by the British, it is said), but even when the British took over in Afghanistan in 1879 - two years after the first Test match - the Afghan Pashtuns, Tajiks, Balochs et al had no time and less inclination for taking on the mad dogs in the midday sun.
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi rallies his side during the World Cup.Credit: Getty
Since the British invaders were sent on their way in 1919, there have been seven changes to the formative status of Afghanistan. But for the cricket world, the watershed may have been the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion. When the Australian Test team toured Pakistan in 1980, the only security measure taken for team was that the trip to the Khyber Pass was shortened by 10 kilometres – you could still hear the artillery fire, though.
The Soviets occupied for 10 years and the refugees headed mostly towards Pakistan, through the Khyber Pass or the high valleys of the Hindu Kush, or through Jalalabad to Pashtun Peshawar, or south from Kandahar to Quetta. In Peshawar, Quetta or anywhere else along that fractious border, the locals worked hard, attended the mosque and played cricket. They had a natural talent, a competitive instinct and plenty of willing teachers. When the Soviets were ousted a decade later, many refugees were able to return. Many did not.
This is no time to dismiss Afghanistan’s cricket fairytale
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11.11.2023
When the pundits cast their well schooled eyes across the form guide for the 2023 World Cup, they surely had hosts India on top followed by defending champions England.
Australia, after underwhelming warm-up series against South Africa and India, were given a chance of scraping into a semi-final along with the Kiwis and Proteas. Pakistan could go undefeated or finish third last. The Netherlands and Afghanistan could raffle for ninth and 10th.
The top of table has been fairly predictable. India have the speed and the spin to confuse all-comers. Whether using a shiny new ball or a bruised pellet, it makes little difference to their penetration. Their batting line-up has quality and........
© The Sydney Morning Herald
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