From sending cricket kits in 2002 to BCCI now ensuring coaching: India’s role in nurturing Afghan cricket

Afghanistan’s cricket team’s victories over the mighty Australian side in the on-going T20 World Cup followed by its success against Bangladesh, are great achievements. They are all the more remarkable because of the difficult and uncertain situation in which Afghan cricketers have honed their game to reach the semi-finals of the tournament.

The Afghan cricket team is perhaps the only one, at the international level, that does not have a home ground in its own country; it is currently in Sharjah; earlier, it was in Greater Noida in the National Capital Territory, India.

The Afghan team’s victory against Australia evoked two different sets of memories in me. The first was 22 years old, and the other was very remote, going back to my childhood. I relate them because both are germane, in their different ways, to the occasion.

Around two months after I reached Kabul in March 2002 to take over my assignment as India’s ambassador, an Afghan came to the embassy without prior notice and asked to meet me. He introduced himself to the embassy personnel as a member of the Afghan Cricket Association. I was informed about the visitor and his desire to meet me. I was perplexed because the Afghans were known for their interest in football, bodybuilding, wrestling, and, of course, their traditional and historic sport, buzkashi. But cricket?

After initial pleasantries, I asked the visitor, “Since when have Afghans started to play cricket?” Taking no offence at my query, he said, “Ambassador Sahib, Afghans started going into exile into Pakistan since the communists took power in Kabul in 1978. Almost a million Afghan boys have grown up in Pakistan. They went to school there and developed a great liking for the game. Many of them are talented. Some of these boys are returning to Afghanistan and would like to continue with their cricket. We need help to nurture their game. So, I have come to you because I want India to help us.”

The requests made by him were modest. At that stage, he said, all they needed were about twenty cricket kits. I asked if they had a ground. He said they did not, but with the kits, the boys would be able to find spaces to continue with their cricket. It was clear to me that he did not want to seek help from Pakistan. This was not surprising because many Afghan refugees, including those who had studied in Pakistani educational institutions, strongly felt that they were discriminated against, if not exploited, by their hosts.

Some weeks later, the cricket kits arrived from Delhi. They were sent to the Afghan cricketers. I did not follow this up. This was partly because when I asked Afghan leaders, many of whom I knew well, I was met with a range of responses ranging from bewilderment to polite smiles. Almost a year and a half later, I met another person with an interest in cricket. He asked if some further help could be given, but it was not clear about its nature. I recall writing to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which, I think, wrote to the BCCI, but nothing much came of this exercise.

My immediate successors, Rakesh Sood and Jayant Prasad, confirmed to me recently that the Afghans did not ask them for any assistance in cricket during their tenures. Gautam Mukhopadhya, who became ambassador in 2010 and served in Kabul till 2013, was asked for help. He wrote to the Delhi Cricket Association, but nothing concrete came about. Meanwhile, for a decade until around 2013, the Afghans continued playing cricket in Pakistan. They were also coached by some Pakistani players, but their teams were consigned to the minor league. They were not taken seriously.

Amar Sinha became India’s ambassador to Afghanistan in 2013. He is passionately devoted to the game. His tenure coincided with the Afghan cricketers and the managers of the game being completely frustrated with Pakistan. They asked him for India’s assistance to develop Afghan cricket. Thus, there was a happy coincidence. Sinha contacted some members of the BCCI whom he knew. He told me recently that Rajiv Shukla and Anurag Thakur readily came forward to help the Afghans. The BCCI also responded positively. By now, the Afghans needed a home ground and training where their talent could be developed.

In a message to me after Afghanistan reached the semi-finals on Tuesday, Sinha wrote that Shukla and Thakur assisted in getting Afghan cricketers to play in the IPL, getting the Afghan team to play in the Asia Cup, though the country was not a full member of the ICC and not a regular test-playing nation. And finally, a home ground in Greater Noida.

During a visit to India in 2015, the then Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani, personally requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s help for his country’s cricketers. Ghani realised that if the cricketers did well, they could become a source of inspiration for Afghan youth. Modi assured him of his full support. His instructions paved the way for ensuring that Afghan cricketers got a home ground and that the BCCI ensured coaching. In this, Ajay Jadeja played a role.

Thus, Amar Sinha became the catalyst for a vast improvement in Afghan cricket. This is what good ambassadors do to create goodwill between countries. I can only hope that the Afghans remember the role he has played in nurturing their cricket. And, of course, the role of India. This is so even though, as a diplomat, I know that gratitude is seldom present in inter-state relations.

And now to my remote memory: From early childhood, I heard about cricket and listened to test cricket commentary on the radio. I recall the unhappiness I felt as a young boy when the Indian cricket test team lost 5-0 to the English team when it toured England in the summer of 1959. Then the Australians toured India in the winter of 1959-60.

At that time, cricket was played in India only in the winter, and the only international form of cricket matches was five-day-long tests with a day of rest in between! The game was so different from what it is now. There were no one-day matches, let alone T20s, and of course there were no international competitions. I stress this because test cricket was all that was there at the international level.

India had never beaten Australia. But in the second test in Kanpur during the Australian tour, a miracle happened. The Australian players, led by legendary Richie Benaud and with a formidable batting lineup including Norman O’Neill and Neil Harvey, were spun out by Jasu Patel on a turning track. Patel got 14 wickets in the match.

As soon as India won the match, a wave of joy spread through the country. Cricket was not still the game for almost all boys, and now, of course, many girls dream. But still, it was one thing that mattered to the country. And, a victory against the Australians was the stuff of dreams come true. Even the staid old newspaper of our hometown, Allahabad (now Prayagraj), The Leader, which was, at one time, edited by the legendary Sir C Y Chintamani, came out with the victory as its lead story on page 1 and under banner headlines. India lost that series 2-1 to the Australians, but I believe the Kanpur victory infused confidence in the country.

Now, the Afghans are going to play South Africa in the semi-finals. There has been jubilation throughout Afghanistan, though the game is most popular in the south and the east—the Pushtoon areas— as the players belong to the same ethnicity. The game is becoming popular in the rest of the country and in different ethnicities too. They all would hope for further success for their team, but even if that does not come, Afghan cricket has reached a certain age. It will instill confidence in people who have suffered so much for five decades.

Finally, for the Afghans, the icing on the cake is that Pakistan did not reach the Super 8 stage! That is no exaggeration, but the simple truth.

The writer is a former Indian diplomat who served as India’s Ambassador to Afghanistan and Myanmar, and as secretary, the Ministry of External Affairs. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.