In early 2010, aspiring documentary makers Tio Albone, Leslie Knott and Lucy Martens showed the world one of the greatest stories of sports. It was aptly titled
Out of the Ashes and it followed the amazing story of the Afghanistan cricket team as they climbed up through the world rankings. The story was a fairytale in the true sense as the war ravaged nation struggled through many hardships to see their country
rise in international esteem.
This year, Afghanistan’s cricket made history as they won the silver medal at the Asian Games 2010 in Guangzhou, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/China-c40996. The multi-sport event was already making headlines as cricket made its debut at the Asian Games however, the
Afghani team recorded an bigger historic landmark as they managed to stage an upset after defeating gold medal favourites http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 to reach the final.
Afghanistan Captain Mohammad Nabi said that the war in his country has affected the progress in http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745’s cricket.
Afghanistan strode confidently through Asian Games to get to the finals but lost the gold to a more experienced http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747.
But http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Nabi-c78373 said that he is very happy with Friday’s silver medal as it means a lot to all the people back home who have seen nothing but strife in the three decades of war their country has witnessed.
He hoped that the second place would provide “enough inspiration” to Afghanistan’s cricket administrations to start looking into facilities such as more professional grounds for the young and aspiring players.
He said that his team got inspired by Bangladesh who has worked hard to get to its Test status and the authorities are also involved in promoting cricket throughout the country as they organize domestic cricketing events the year
round.
Afghanistan has only one complete working pitch with the turf in the country’s capital, Kabul, whereas Jalalabad also has some concrete pitches.
Afghanistan’s coach http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rashid-Latif-c84084 said that there are millions of young and talented players from Afghan cities like Khost, Kuna and Jalalabad but they remain in the shadows as there are no official and established local clubs that
would help them in coming to the fore.
Latif, who is a former international player and has played with Pakistan’s national side admitted that if Afghanistan needs to progress in international cricket, they must be provided with the basic facilities such as the development
of grounds.
Afghanistan would now be preparing for next week’s ICC Intercontinental Cup in Dubai against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Scotland-c756. Nabi said that the team is slowly progressing in limited overs and needs more exposure and experience to be considered for matches
against cricket’s top 10 countries.
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