Amid fears that the political takeover of the Taliban may affect cricket’s progress in Afghanistan, the country’s cricket board CEO Hamid Shinwari assured that it won’t be the case as the organisation “loves” the game.
“Taliban loves cricket. They have supported us since the beginning. They did not interfere in our (board’s) activities,”
Shinwari told PTI from Kabul, assuring also that the players and the members of their families are safe even as the political turmoil in the war-torn country raises eyebrows across the world.
Stating that there won’t be changes made to the ACB board, Shinwari reminded that cricket first started to flourish in Afghanistan when the Taliban first took over the reins in 1996.
In a five-year period spanning till 2001, many of the Afghan refugees in Pakistan picked up the sport, and there onwards began the nation’s inspirational journey into becoming an ICC associate and later a full-member country that now plays Test cricket and has qualified for multiple major white-ball events.
“It can be said that cricket flourished during the Taliban era. It is also a fact that many of our players practised in Peshawar and they made the sport mainstream in Afghanistan.”
Shinwari said.
Shinwari further informed he and the rest of the ACB administrators will resume their work from Tuesday and the national team’s camp which was underway ahead of the Pakistan ODI series in Sri Lanka will also recommence after a two-day break because of the change in government.
The ACB official pointed out that apart from prominent names such as Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Zadran, who are in the UK right now for The Hundred, the rest of the Afghan men cricketers are in Kabul and doing fine and will be able to go ahead with all their international and domestic cricketing commitments.
