Twelfth men
A camaradarie born of adversity characterises the Afghan cricket team and, despite being ranked last among the 12 nations taking part in the Twenty20 World Cup, which begins this week, they are beginning to give the big boys a run for their money. Lynne O'Donnell reports. Pictures by Siddharth Siva
''It's more than a game for us," says Hamid Shinwari, chief executive of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). "The feelings and happiness of the Afghan people are at stake. Through this game we can establish peace in Afghanistan."
Shinwari is sitting in an overstuffed, embroidered, crimson chair in the lobby of the black marble hotel that is his team's home away from home, in Ajman, one of the smaller constituents of the United Arab Emirates. In the UAE, the Afghans are the hosts, as the Sharjah Cricket Club, in the neighbouring emirate, share their 25,000-seat stadium with Afghanistan, so the team have somewhere to call their own when playing international matches as long as war and the Taliban continue to terrorise their country.
Afghanistan are preparing to play a one-day game against Australia - the cricketing world's equivalent of David taking on Goliath. No one who knows anything about cricket seriously expects the underdogs to win, though. This is Australian charity, which has been generously extended in the past to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, as they endeavoured to develop their cricket and join the game's elite as test-match playing nations. And because cricket is "a funny game", as legendary former Australian captain and the undisputed "voice of cricket" Richie Benaud likes to say, there's always an outside chance that things could go Afghanistan's way.
As it plays out, Afghanistan lose, but not without putting up a valiant fight and validating their brag that they will soon be a major force in world cricket.
The Afghans still have a long way to go before they join the 10-member test-playing league, but they have made astounding progress in recent years in the one-day international (ODI) and Twenty20 (single innings, 20 overs for each team) variants of the game. They are currently ranked 14th in the world, having risen from 39th in 2005.
It's the good news story of world cricket - one that players, commentators and sports reporters love to love. The country's history as a battleground where poverty, misery and ignorance are the norm makes the triumphant march of the plucky Afghan cricketers a heart-warming tale. It has been made into an award-winning documentary called , which concentrated more on the interpersonal politics of the team than their cricket-playing prowess. Even as losers, the Afghans get the winning share of media coverage.
