Passion, the ability to fight back and a formidable set of skills were the qualities that caught everybody’s attention during the recently concluded Asia Cup, in a cricket team that has come a long way — Afghanistan. But Afghanistan’s will to do well in the field of cricket was very strong from the beginning.

On March 25, 1992, the area around the refugee camp in Peshawar echoed with aerial firing. A 10-year-old Afghan boy living there with his family wondered what was going on. He was told that Pakistan had won the cricket World Cup. From that day on, the boy — who liked playing football until then — started taking tape-ball cricket seriously. Soon he became known for his cricketing skills. People in his neighbourhood called him Nawroz Afghani or Nawroz Mohajir; but the world now knows him as Nawroz Mangal, the former captain of Afghanistan’s national cricket team.

“My family migrated to Parachinar from Afghanistan and later, sometime around 1988 or ’89, settled in the Badaber area of Peshawar,” recalls Mangal, the incumbent Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chief selector, who played 49 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 32 international T20s for his country before taking on his new position.

Now wowing everyone with its skill, grit and passion, Afghanistan’s national cricket team once relied on Pakistan to host them and hone their talent. The journey has been nothing short of inspirational

While Mangal was still playing tape-ball cricket in the refugee camp, someone back in Afghanistan had already started laying the foundation of the cricketing structure there. For his passion for the game and ground-laying work in Kabul in the 1990s, Allah Dad Noori has earned the title of ‘Father of Afghan Cricket.’ 

“The war in Afghanistan also pushed my family to Pakistan in 1980. We settled in Malakand after spending some time in Charsadda,” Noori says. “I was a good player of volleyball and cricket. It was around 1991-92 that I was noticed by a club owner in Peshawar, and that’s how began my cricket journey. I played club-level cricket with Kabir Khan, Arshad Khan, Jannisar Khan [part of the US national team now] and Fazl-e-Akber Durrani,” he says. After his retirement in 2004, Noori became associated with the ACB.

In 1994, Noori travelled to Afghanistan for some business-related work and requested the local sports committee for an official letter for the initiation of a cricket team. “Moving about in Afghanistan wasn’t easy due to the [political] unrest, but I managed to visit the sports committee office a number of times. They said to hold up the idea of forming a cricket team until a somewhat conducive environment,” Noori says.

His brother Khaliq Dad Noori, a passionate cricketer in Pakistan, also joined hands with his elder brother. “Due to the unrest in Afghanistan in the ’90s, our training camps would be held in Pakistan,” recalls Dad. Firstly, at the Peshawar Gymkhana Ground and subsequently shifted from there to Usmania Cricket Club, after paying a nominal fee.”

“But after moving back to Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, we straightaway started our activities at the Wazir Akbar Khan Ground in Kabul. The next step was a provincial tournament in white kits, for the first time. Teams from Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Jalalabad and Kurar participated,” Dad says. He is now working with junior Afghan outfits.

“We prepared the first turf pitch and rolled it with a cement roller. We put our heart and soul into the mission of putting Afghanistan on the cricketing map of the world. We initiated correspondence with the Asian Cricket Council [ACC] and the International Cricket Council [ICC] as well.”

The Afghanistan Cricket Federation (ACF) came into existence in 1995 with Noori as its president. The first national team was assembled after initial trials with him also as the captain and Pakistan’s Rehmat Gul Tajik as its first coach. Support from the neighbouring cricketing authority, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), at the time cannot be discounted. The connection with PCB was established through Maazullah Khan. The Karachi City Cricket Association (KCCA) under Sirajul Islam Bukhari and the former sports minister of Sindh and cricket lover (late) Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, along with former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, also facilitated Afghan players in Karachi.

“The PCB invited us to Pakistan and organised matches and free stay for us in various cities. Later, we also applied on PCB’s advice for ACC and ICC affiliation. In fact, the PCB provided us with reference for those applications,” Dad says.

Meanwhile, Mangal, who missed the first trials in 1997, got a call from the host of a local tournament in which he excelled and got picked for a 20-player camp. “I had got myself enrolled with the Zeb Cricket Club in Peshawar from where I learned the basics of the game. I played against Umar Gul, Yasir Shah and other Pakistan players,” Mangal says. After that, Mangal got his spot in the Afghanistan national outfit through trials in Peshawar.

The PCB assisted the budding Afghanistan team by accommodating them in Grade-2 and handing their responsibility to former international cricketer Naeem Ahmed. Ahmed coached the Afghanistan team for three seasons.

“In their first season (2000-2001), the team would get out twice in a single day. In the second season they managed a draw and eventually won a game in their third season,” Ahmed says, who used to motivate the Afghan cricketers by telling them to respect cricket. “Give respect to the game and it will take you places,” he would say to them.

Noori continued to lead the team, which played against various associate countries. But the turnaround for them, both technically and administratively, was in 2007-08. The tactical turnaround came with the appointment of the former Pakistan Test fast bowler Kabir Khan as the head coach of the team in 2008, a defining moment in the progress of Afghan cricket.

“I was first offered the job in 2007, but I could not do it then due to my engagement with the UAE team at the time. However, I accepted when offered again in 2008,” Khan says.

At the time Khan took charge of the Afghan national team, they were playing Division 4 in Tanzania and their world ranking was beyond 100. With Khan’s arrival, Afghanistan cricket found itself on a modern course. “I loved their attitude, they were passionate, they were patriotic, they hated losing and they were eager to bring positive recognition to Afghanistan. It became their strength,” Khan says.

“Still, Afghanistan lacked facilities. Even the Kabul Stadium was not in proper shape. They had no infrastructure and thus the training camps were still being held in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar,” he recalls.

In their first season (2000-2001), the team would get out twice in a single day. In the second season they managed a draw and eventually won a game in their third season,” Ahmed says, who used to motivate the Afghan cricketers by telling them to respect cricket. “Give respect to the game and it will take you places,” he would say to them.

Under Khan, Afghanistan qualified for Division 2 cricket and later won the Division 2 event in South Africa. The team acquired ODI status in 2010 and its overall ranking, too, improved considerably. Khan, who resigned in 2010, expresses satisfaction over the current state of affairs in Afghanistan. He thinks that the set-up has really improved with new players emerging, which is a very good sign for their future.

“Afghanistan secured ODI status along with a $2-3 million grant from the ICC. I was in Bahrain when the changes in the board took place. ACB came into being and Hamid Karzai, the president of the country, appointed politician Omar Zakhilwal as its chairman,” says Noori, who then kept himself aloof from cricket for about seven to eight years before the country’s next president Ashraf Ghani directed him to look into the affairs of cricket again. He is nowadays working in the board as chief of the advisors and discipline committee.

Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif was the next man in. At first he was brought in as batting consultant, but afterwards he became the Afghanistan team’s head coach (2010) after Khan’s departure.

“I was approached by Hamid Shinwari, the then CEO of the board, and I travelled to Afghanistan to find a good bunch of players during a short camp in Kabul. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afsar Zazai, Amir Hamza and a few others were potentially good cricketers,” Latif says.

“Gulbadin Naib, a junior level bodybuilder, too caught my attention but then he left the scene. Still, I remembered his name because it reminded me of the Afghan leader Gulbadin Hikmatyar. I summoned Gulbadin to the following camp in Jalalabad,” Latif says. 

A few other players such as Shabir Noori, Abdullah Abdullah and Daulat Zadran also came along to make up a fine 20-22 players’ unit. “On-field skills are one aspect of the game, but the attitude of the Afghan cricketers is unmatched. They respect their teachers so much that a single motivational sentence can make them give their all. Still, they need mentoring more than coaching,” Latif says. 

Under Latif’s coaching, Afghanistan beat Pakistan in the semi-final of the Asian Games in 2010 before losing to Bangladesh to finish with a silver medal. That was followed by their triumph in the Intercontinental Cup.

Latif recalls that, to inspire the younger generation, Afghanistan needed a star of their own — which they found in the fast bowler Hamid Hassan. “He was the fighter who bowled 21 successive overs in an Intercontinental Cup match despite a wounded foot. He taped the wound and bowled his heart out for his country’s victory. Hamid was a one-man show in that match,” Latif says. 

In 2011, Latif stepped down as Afghanistan’s coach citing differences with the ACB over the distribution of the winning purse from the Intercontinental Cup.

“I wanted a bigger share for players from the $100,000 purse, but the board had other ideas, so my journey with Afghanistan cricket ended there. But I still carry fond memories of my time with them. In fact I learnt a lot from them.”

Latif left the scene but with the Afghanistan team on track to move ahead. Administratively, then CEO Shinwari brought about significant changes for Afghanistan.

“I laid down the foundation of the robust technical and operational infrastructure for cricketing affairs in Afghanistan and, with a group of the country’s cadres and cricket experts, I devised a five-year cricket development strategy. Making ACB a self-sufficient institution to administer cricket in Afghanistan effectively, development of domestic cricket, increasing Afghanistan’s international participation at the highest levels in all formats of cricket and achieving associate and full memberships were the main elements of my strategy,” Shinwari says.

And thus cricketing facilities blossomed across the country, including cricket stadiums such as the Alokozay Kabul International Stadium and Amanuallah Khan International Cricket Stadium. Consequently, the game propelled and flourished domestically, and various Afghan teams started securing reputable positions in international tournaments.

In 2011, the ‘Afghan Cheetahs’, under the captaincy of Mohammad Nabi and coached by Raees Ahmadzai, featured in Pakistan’s domestic Twenty20 Cup. The following year, the ACC acknowledged Afghanistan’s rapid progress and nominated Afghanistan for the ICC’s associate membership. During that time, Sharjah was the home venue for Afghanistan. However, as a result of an MoU between the ACB and the Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2015, the Afghanistan cricket team shifted its home base from Sharjah to India.

After rising from Division 5 in 2009, the Afghans made their first appearance in the 50-over World Cup in 2015 under the English coach Andy Moles. However, the ACB decided not to extend Moles’s contract and roped in former Pakistan great Inzamamul Haq, who initially accepted the role of the Afghanistan team coach only for the tour of Zimbabwe in October 2015. Later, Inzamam worked for them for about six months before joining the PCB as chief selector in April 2016.

Inzamam’s coaching stint was very successful. Afghanistan won 12 out of 17 T20s, including all five against Zimbabwe, and they caused an astonishing upset of the eventual champions the West Indies at the World T20 of 2016. In 10 ODIs, under Inzamam, all against Zimbabwe, Afghanistan won six.

After Inzamam, India’s former cricketer Lalchand Rajput took over for over a year. Under him, Afghanistan won six out of 10 series across formats and upset the West Indies in an ODI in Gros Islet, and also made their debut at Lord’s against MCC.

Along with the team’s performance in the cricket field, the Afghanistan board also needed elevation in status and it happened for them in 2017 when they were awarded full-member status by the ICC.

It was a big leap forward as mentioned by the former ACB chairman Atif Mashal, who took over in January 2017. Mashal points out he had a lot of issues to fix before going formally for the full-membership. “There were priorities for me. First I had to work on a constitution to define the responsibilities of all board employees. After the constitution, a three-year strategy was chalked out which laid out procurement, HR, finance and selection policies. I also started a five-year audit in order to clean up the institution and to make it a modern, professional and an international standard institution,” Mashal says.

“With the support of the government, now five grounds are under construction in the Paktia, Nangarhar, Helmand and Zabul provinces. I also got funds for the Logar, Bamiyan and Mazar-i-Sharif stadiums, which will be built next year. All the designs have been approved by professional engineers of the Ministry of Urban Development,” Mashal says.

The highpoint of Mashal’s tenure came in June 2017 when the ICC conferred on Afghanistan Test status alongside Ireland. Afghanistan played their inaugural Test match in Bengaluru in June 2018.

Mashal says he also planned for an international T20 league for Afghanistan. “With limited funds and resources it seemed impossible. But with time and effort, first we were able to convince the ACB and later got financial partners and relevant approvals for it too. Permissions from the Emirates Cricket Board and the ICC were also acquired,” says Mashal, who resigned only last month (September). But the Afghanistan Premier League kicked off this month and is currently under way at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium with some 40 overseas players.

The contribution of the incumbent CEO Shafiqullah Asmat Stanikzai cannot be discounted either as he was amongst the bunch of players active in Afghanistan cricket around 1999-2000. He holds the record of scoring the first domestic hundred. A shoulder injury put a halt to his career in 2004 as a result of which he started working for the Afghanistan Cricket Federation back then.

“My responsibilities then were liaising with various other cricketing bodies and nations and handling their visas and logistics. After the formation of the ACB, I was appointed manager of the national team,” says Stanikzai, who was appointed ACB’s CEO after an interview with the president of the country.

“The challenge for us now is a lack of technical staff since cricket is still very young in the country. We have a small number of former players who can be the linchpin for ACB,” he says.

Published in Dawn, EOS, October 14th, 2018