The English dictionary defines “celebration” as the action of marking one's pleasure at an important event or occasion by engaging in enjoyable, typically social, activity.

In my opinion there are two types of celebrations, one which is strategic and one which occurs in a specific moment and is impossible to tie down to planning. It happens in the heat of the moment and no matter how much you plan that moment, you can’t help but be enslaved by it.

Such celebrations where emotions are liberated without any apprehension can only take place in a sports arena.

Be it a 40-year-old man dancing to no music in front of 50,000 fans in a stadium after scoring a goal or an angry Gangnam style dance after your teammate hits a six to win a match, these celebrations are the liberation of emotions lingering in the shallow but not being able to surface, all of them have a story hidden inside.

When I was a child, I used to imagine myself getting a wicket off the last ball with the other team requiring two runs to win. I used to look at myself in the mirror and practice different celebrations, and of course I imagined doing it in the World Cup final for Pakistan (every cricket nerd in Pakistan has won a world cup final in his/her head).

I practiced many celebration routines, one was with my arms aloft in full “boss mode” - there was another when I gave a sendoff kiss to the batsman - one had me going down on my knees with arms pointing towards the heaven, head falling back, fake tears in my eyes and all my team mates surrounding me.

I eventually did manage to win a match from exactly the situation I had imagined. In case you are wondering I didn’t do it in the World Cup final. It came at the climax of a match I played with a group of friends.

I was on point that day, spinning the ball a mile, bowling doosras at will and it came down to the last ball.

I was prepared to risk it and delivered another 'mystery' delivery, one which Saqlain Mushtaq would have been proud of, and clean bowled the batsman.

What happened next is something that I never practiced, I ran like crazy man, there was no pattern, I didn’t know where I was running, I didn’t know what I was doing heck, I don’t even remember the whole thing but I do remember doing some sort of a weird boxing move at the end of it all mixed with a few verbals.

It was a pure release of emotions, it was my catharsis.

After that moment and plenty more totally ridiculous ones while playing football, I became fascinated with celebrations.

All my personal moments of joy after picking up a wicket or scoring a goal represented a certain period in my life. There was a back story to them so for me, these 'moments' did not feel hollow.

So what do these sporting 'moments' really signify?

To me they are either a release of personal emotions, a representation of your culture, an untold story played out or the state of affairs within your team.

Take Maradona’s celebrations into account; the 1986 “goal of the century” versus England and 1994 World Cup goal versus Greece.

Both are different celebrations and have different stories behind them, both are unplanned and both represent a different time in the Argentinian great's personal life and his country’s overall state.

Maradona 1986 versus England: He dribbles past the entire English team and eventually scores one of the great goals of all time. He should go bonkers, he should celebrate like there is no tomorrow but what does he do? He runs in his typical nonchalant style towards the corner flag, does a simple leap with one hand punching the air, it feels as if this is no big deal, as if it is just an ordinary goal in an ordinary match.

This was neither an ordinary goal nor an ordinary match. Argentina and England had fought over the Falkland Islands four years earlier, 655 Argentinians were killed and the country had to surrender after 74 days of war. This war was almost a statement of Britain stamping their authority.

While the British clearly were the boss on the battle field, there was a general sense of Argentina being a better team on the football field. It was almost a case of revenge and showing their opponents who the real kings were.

After the match, Maradona said: “Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas war, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there, killed them like little birds. And this was revenge.”

May be he didn’t go nuts after scoring the goal because the match hadn’t ended, he wanted to make sure revenge was complete. Here, on the football field, he was the general, he was better than anyone else and he knew it, so there was no reason to show anger, joy or any extreme emotion in the celebration.

Maradona had owned England and his nonchalant celebration was proof of that.

Maradona 1994: He picks up the ball at the edge of the penalty area and unleashes an unstoppable shot into the top corner of the Greek goal, he does what he should have done in 1986, he goes berserk, he is angry, he is shouting, he runs towards the camera, looks straight into it and he is still angry.

This was as pure a release of emotions as you will ever see from a human being.

This is a man at the twilight of his career, he is neither as great as he used to be nor young, he should have mellowed down by now.

To understand this celebration you need to understand the tale behind it.

In the early 90s, there was a genuine sense of frustration in Argentina, crime rate was growing and this time the enemy was within not the opposing team. The gap between the rich and the poor was growing which eventually resulted in the great Argentinean economic depression in 1998.

Maradona, who came from humble beginnings, had an enemy within himself too. He had to leave his beloved Napoli, he had drug issues, he was making a comeback of sorts and he was fighting with his demons in an attempt to prove the world wrong again.

This celebrations was a catharsis of his treatment in Italy after the 1990 World cup, a catharsis of his country’s problems, a catharsis of his drug issues - this was liberation, this was freedom, this moment was his redemption.

We all know Maradona had to leave the World Cup after being found guilty of doping but that doesn’t take away his celebration from our memory.

That is the thing about great celebrations, they remain with you, they are like smell, with the power to trigger memories.

How will the world remember Afghanistan’s performance in the ICC cricket World Cup 2015?

Will the world remember their battering at the hands of Australia? Or will the world remember Shapoor Zadran’s match-winning celebration; the left-arm paceman him running towards his teammates, hair flying all over the place, arms spread wide, a Boeing 747 in full flight before he crashes down on his knees, falls with his face down onto the ground with tears in his eyes? The latter perhaps.

The player, whose strongest suit is his bowling, had hitting the winning runs against Scotland to give his side their first ever World Cup win.

It was as if Shapoor had ended the war in his country, like Afghanistan was going to be peaceful after this win, there was naivety in those emotions, there was innocence and rawness in the celebration and that is what the Afghanistan cricket team has come to represent.

They are raw, entertaining and their celebrations are a testament to that.

The cricket field is the one place where they can actually win, where they can enjoy themselves and perhaps where they can find redemption for their war-plagued country.

I find their celebrations the most refreshing, they remind me of when of my childhood when all I wanted to do was to play and forget all the worries in my life.

The field was my escape from troubles in class and at home and it gave me an opportunity to fix everything in my life for a moment, albeit a short one.

That is what this Afghanistan team reminds me of. Their celebrations take me back to much simpler times in my life.

I will continue with my love for Afghan celebrations in the follow up blog. This was just a monologue to my love for celebrations.

The idea for writing this piece came from a person I have come to respect a lot following my admiration for the Afghan team’s celebrations on twitter.

I will further elaborate on why the Afghan celebrations are so refreshing in my follow up blog.