Hamid Hassan is a character you can’t miss on a cricket field. With face paints and a sturdy body, he looks like a medieval warrior, out for a fight rather than a game of cricket. In many ways, he defines Afghanistan cricket. More than simply playing the game and going back home, they display a scene of a battlefield, a need to triumph for a much greater cause. Despite their minnow status in the world of cricket, they walk in confidently and put everything on line for a win. They are out to prove a point, and must they do, in victory or in the more likely consequence, a defeat.
What cricket means to the war-torn nation can be anybody’s guess. Is it a reprieve or just another facet shall remain unknown. Has the excessive coverage of war by the media, overshadowed and hidden the happier life aspects of the country? Is Afghanistan and its problems as normal as the one that any other country faces? Has the media overhyped the troubles of the nation or is it all true?
All said and done, cricket has certainly become a part of the popular culture in Afghanistan; the current bunch of cricketers have turned into folk heroes. This comes from an anecdote narrated to me about an incident in 2012: “ ‘F*ck this sh*t’ said the Afghan as his classmates forced him to watch the India-Afghanistan match during the ICC World T20 2014 with them. It was supposed to be a moment of pride for the people of Afghanistan, but the Afghan guy, a student in the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), wasn’t too keen in the sport. He, however, admitted that the sport had developed massive following in the country and the people would cheer the success of the players at the global level.”
Afghanistan’s qualification in the 2012 ICC World T20 had raised a few eyebrows. Not much was known about their cricketing history. By the time they raised interest among the masses, Shapoor Zadran had sent Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir back to the dressing room in less than four overs. He spearheaded a brilliant spell of fast bowling in their first international match against a Test nation. They lost the match by 23 runs, but that was just the warm-up for a bigger race they had intended to run.
In a span of next three years, they defeated some of the biggest associate cricketing nations to qualify for the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup. They continued to fight like warriors, punching above their weight every single time, in a competition that has been framed to allow the top eight teams to make it through to the next round. They threatened their more fearsome rivals with their bowling, but below-par batting shows and substandard fielding often left them short.
History beckoned them on February 26, 2015. In Scotland, the opposition was as weak as they could’ve got in a World Cup match. Yet they stuttered. From the point of 85 for two, they broke down to 97 for seven, chasing a target of 211. A period of brilliance and defiance complementing each other, they put to display their true skill. To say, they behaved like their neighbours Pakistan, won’t be an overstatement.
There were moments of drama. Victory wasn’t to come easily. It wouldn’t have been befitting had they truncated the Scots. Much like their rise in the game, their maiden World Cup win deserved a more engaging tale. They gave cricket fans moments of nervousness and breathless excitement as they scripted that tale. In the process, maybe for a day or even an hour, they shooed away the negative stories around Afghanistan from air space and news prints. In that, lied their biggest victory.
(Aayush Puthran is currently a reporter with India.com. He has previously worked as a cricket journalist with CricketCountry and as an Associate Producer with Sony Six. Mercurially jovial, pseudo pompous, perpetually curious and occasionally confused, he is always up for a light-hearted chat over a few cups of filter kaapi!)
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