Cricket: Afghanistan want to play neighbouring Test Nations, finish 3rd in WCL Division One
Afghanistan had a decent outing in the ICC World Cricket League Division One. Now the team wants some more action but against the big boys of the game, in order to improve their skills.
Kabir http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319 the coach of Afghanistan has said that he wants to request ICC and also the neighbour Asian countries to help them in playing more cricket against Test member nations.
Kabir said that playing in an event like ICC World Cricket League is fantastic but in order for the team to step up their game they need to play against test teams. Playing against test teams would challenge their game more and help the team grow immensely.
The Afghan Coach said that the Asian block should look at England and how much England and the Wales Cricket board helps out the associate members in their region. If test playing teams in Asia, such as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 would invite Afghanistan for tours and even when they have other teams touring their country, Afghanistan can be invited to play the tour match with them, it would be really helpful.
Kabir added that England has been facilitating http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ireland-c751 and Netherlands for a while now, and we have 4 test playing nations in Asia so it should not be a problem for Asian teams.
Afghanistan was not part of the Asia Cup held in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 this year, and the team and management have shown immense disappointment about their exclusion from the event. Even though Afghanistan was the Champions of the ACC trophy, Afghanistan was excluded from the tournament and the Asian cricket council said that it would have been difficult to accommodate another team due to the packed schedule.
Kabir reiterated that unless his team gets a chance to apply their trade against the best, they will never learn the game and hence the process of climbing up the ladder will be even more difficult and long. He said that Afghan players play all year long in various camps around the country and only come together when a tournament comes along. If they are able to play more as a team and that too against big name teams then players will grow to a great degree and obviously the team will benefit. Talking about the lack of facilities at home Kabir said that, there is hardly a cricket structure in Afghanistan and no signs of domestic cricket. The best we can do is hope that our neighbouring countries will give one of our teams an opportunity to compete in their domestic season, or at least pick some of our players to play in their leagues.
The Coach was very pleased about his team’s performance in the ICC World Cricket League. Kabir said that his team was able to come 3rd which is a big achievement. He said that the 3rd position looks even better because the tournament was played in the http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Netherlands-c753 and conditions were very challenging. He said that his team has never won while chasing but they chased down targets number of times that means the team is improving with time.
Khan said that there were number of problems between the players and the board before the tournament started. But he said he was very impressed by the team attitude as they left all the problems back home and fought hard on the pitch. There were a number of matches that were very close but the team showed immense unity and spirit and fought till the end.
The http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745 team has certainly shown great improvement in the short amount of time and that too with limited opportunities and lack of resources. If they are handed a helping hand from neighbouring nations it would definitely speed up the learning process.
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