'To even get this far in qualifying for cricket’s World Cup is a Mount Everest scale feat in itself, given there are nearly a hundred teams currently ranked by the ICC.' Opinion | cjwerleman
There are very few moments that have emerged out of Afghanistan in the past four decades that can be described as a feel-good story, one capable of defying negative connotations about a country that has been besieged and bedevilled by foreign ideologies, invasions, and occupations.
Like international football and rugby union, cricket’s world cup is held once every four years, with Australia the reigning champions, having won the tournament it hosted in 2015. That was the same year Afghanistan made its World Cup debut, losing to Bangladesh in its very first game, but notching its first win at cricket’s highest level by defeating Scotland a week later by the slimmest of margins – one wicket.
To place Afghanistan’s feat into a clearer perspective, I will briefly share with you details of my nothing to brag about international cricketing “career,” which might constitute the most generous usage of the word career in recent memory.
This is the proverbial mountain Afghanistan has climbed in a mere decade, while also producing the world’s third highest ranked bowler Rashid Khan, who is now the country’s number one international celebrity, and now earning more than $500,000 in India’s annual“Sport is the only thing that brings peace to the country,” Khan told the UK’slast week, adding that he was “inspired” into playing cricket at a high level by watching Afghanistan perform in a T20 tournament in 2010.
“They take the game on and know how to win. You look at the lineup, and they bat deep, have 35/40 overs of absolute quality and can compete with anyone,” he told me. For Afghanistan to advance to the semifinals it’ll need to win at least five, but most likely six or even seven of its nine round-robin games, with its best chances of success being against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the West Indies – but its win against Pakistan in Friday’s friendly proves it’s a team capable of beating any opponent on any given day.
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