Al Jazeera spoke to Afghanistan’s captain, coach and former bowling coach about their incredible World Cup campaign.
Welcome to Al Jazeera’s sports weekly newsletter. Explore the intersections between sports, politics, culture, and money. You can sign up here.
Afghanistan need a big win against South Africa on Friday to qualify for the Cricket World Cup semi-finals. But just being involved in running at this stage is noteworthy in itself.
Prior to this tournament, Afghanistan’s only 50-over World Cup victory was against Scotland in 2015.
But India beat former champions England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, demolished the Netherlands and came close to defeating five-time champions Australia on Tuesday, but it was Glenn Maxwell who stopped them. It was an astonishing 201 points. One day was the “biggest shock” in international history.
In an exclusive interview this week, captain Hashmatullah Shahidi told Al Jazeera how he was confident Afghanistan would humble some of the world’s strongest teams, calling the victory an “upset”. objected to the word being used.
“I still don’t think we caused the upset,” he said.
“An upset is when we get the last ball. As a team, we’re good enough to beat any opponent. We’re as good as any other team. We are on the same level. If they disrespect us, they will surely taste defeat.”
Afghanistan’s victory gave people a rare opportunity to celebrate publicly in the war-torn, Taliban-controlled country.
The team has an uneasy relationship with the government. Although the team still plays under the Taliban-banned green, black and red flag and is based overseas, Shahidi said the Taliban supports the team.
But their campaign has been dogged by politics, particularly in the match against Australia, where the cricket body canceled a bilateral match between the men’s teams because of the Taliban government’s women’s policies.
The Taliban banned women from playing the sport, ending early efforts to develop women’s cricket in the country.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) said it is trying to chart a path forward for Afghanistan women’s cricket without penalizing the men’s team. However, there is still no clear goal or timeline for reviving the women’s cricket program.
Meanwhile, former Pakistan fast bowler and former Afghanistan bowling coach Umar Gul says the ICC also needs to invest in Afghanistan men’s cricket in the country to build on the team’s success and prevent it from declining. .
“They don’t have that much equipment back home,” Gul told Al Jazeera this week.
“They don’t have a proper domestic structure. The first-class season has only recently started, but they only have four teams. They need to fix their domestic structure and create a team that has the potential to improve at international level. We need to increase it.”
Former England batsman Jonathan Trott, Afghanistan manager, told Al Jazeera he did not want to comment on the politics of sport, but said: “Our job is to be good ambassadors for the game and for this country.”
“And our players certainly bring a lot of smiles to many people in Afghanistan and around the world. And the support for Afghanistan here in India has been great.”