Word: cricket
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...while away the boredom, a few exiled young Afghans began picking up cricket from Pakistanis. Abid was among them, and an unlikely source of national pride was born. Smashed concrete is all that remains of the Kacha Gari pitch now, and the boundary is marked only by lumps of piled-up dirt. But to many Afghans, it is a deeply moving place. On a recent return visit, Abid knelt down, kissed the ground and said, as if still astonished, "I started cricket here...
...Afghans are in South Africa preparing for their Cricket World Cup qualifying matches, which started April 1. They got off to a good start, beating Denmark and Bermuda. A top-four finish in Johannesburg will see them go through to the main event, due to be held in various cities across South Asia in 2011. It would also crown an astonishing rise. Seven years ago, in a country defined by conflict, and which does not have a proper grass pitch even today, there was no national team. But three tournament wins in the past year, comprising 15 victories...
...That this devastated country should be able to field a cricket team at all, let alone one as successful as this, is an unbelievable achievement. When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, they sent the country spiraling into 30 years of war. Millions of Afghans fled the country, many into neighboring Pakistan (from which they only started returning after the U.S.-led invasion of 2001). "At the time when the Red troops (Soviets) came, we fled to Pakistan and lived in Kacha Gari refugee camp...We thought we would never come back to our country," Abid says. (Watch a video...
...squad still comprises unpaid amateurs (even in South Africa, they are not drawing match fees but a $50 per diem provided by the generosity of the ICC), many of whom look quite a bit older than their listed age. The Afghan National Cricket Academy in Kabul consists of four battered training nets and one bowling machine, a piece of equipment used by serious players to practice shots. When the power cuts out, which happens frequently in the Afghan capital, the machine can't be operated. These are the wretched resources used by the Afghans to compete against nations that have...
...Ehmal Pasarly of the BBC Pashtu language radio service has been giving live commentary of several of the team's performances to date, including its historic win against Jersey last year in the ICC World Cricket League Division Five final - a feat that put Afghanistan 29th in the international rankings. "During Jersey we received more than two thousand emails and phone calls," he said. "The emails came from all over the world, but most were from Afghans delighted by their team's success." The broadcaster adds that by the time the team played its early World Cup qualifiers in Argentina...