< 1 minute readRemember Out of the Ashes? It’s a documentary about Afghanistan’s journey “from war to the World Cup”. We reviewed it here and thought it was rather wonderful. It strikes us that it could do with an update because Afghanistan are a Test team now. This is a highly astonishing state
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Sick of winning hearts, Afghanistan win a match
2 minute readWith West Indies needing 10 to win off four balls, Carlos Brathwaite whopped one high into the legside outfield. Najibullah Zadran sprinted, dived, took the catch, broke his neck or something when landing, but never let go of the ball. Of course he didn’t let go. Why would he let
Continue readingAfghanistan are pillaging England’s tile improvements
< 1 minute readEngland appear to have sold you a dummy. Just when you thought they might be transforming into some sort of competent modern T20 side, they conspire to lose three wickets in an over against Afghanistan. Masterful stuff. The bowler was Mohammad Nabi, one of our ten World Cup players to
Continue readingJust a reminder that Afghanistan are playing in this World T20
< 1 minute readRegardless of how they’re performing, it’s worth taking a moment to ponder that anew. Afghanistan are playing cricket. Afghanistan. And indeed cricket. The sport hasn’t exactly gone viral. Most of the time it seems hell-bent on playing out behind some sort of paywall, yet somehow Afghanistan has barged its way
Continue readingSomehow Afghanistan have qualified for the World T20
< 1 minute readThe ICC are calling this ‘the group stage’ of the World T20. Everyone else is correctly referring to it as the qualifiers. Afghanistan have qualified. Despite the best efforts of the organisers, someone had to. Afghanistan did of course have the good fortune to be in Group B. It’s not
Continue readingSamiullah Shenwari really was worth watching
< 1 minute readAfghanistan have won their first World Cup match. It was only the fifth one wicket win in the history of the tournament. With Ireland beating the UAE by two wickets yesterday, it doesn’t need saying that the Associates have provided more than their fair share of entertainment. But we’ll say
Continue readingPoor Izatullah Dawlatzai
< 1 minute readIzatullah Dawlatzai got up this morning and thought to himself: “Maybe today’s the day that I, Izatullah Dawlatzai, will make a name for myself. I will bowl so well against the World Twenty20 Champions that the name Izatullah Dawlatzai will forever be synonymous with bowling that is both spectacularly destructive
Continue readingYuvraj Singh is a good Twenty20 bowler
< 1 minute readMuch has been made of the fact that MS Dhoni wants seven batsmen and four bowlers in his Twenty20 side, even though you have to use at least five bowlers. ‘Sacrilege’, people cry. Not really. Batsman number seven might not contribute much, but the value of a specialist bowler isn’t
Continue readingCricket can help rebuild Afghanistan society
2 minute readBefore you start criticising us for getting carried away and not appreciating the depths of the problems facing a war-torn nation, let us just say that those aren’t our words. They’re the words of Afghanistan’s minister of finance, Dr Omar Zakhilwal and you’d hope he’d have half an idea what
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