Published: Mar 13, 2015, 10:51 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 13, 2015, 10:51 PM (IST)
Afghanistan ended their ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 campaign and suffered a defeat in the hands of England, who too bowed out of the competition. Afghanistan registered their only win in the tournament against Scotland. After their last game at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), coach Andy Moles and skipper Mohammad Nabi spoke to the press.(READ: England vs Afghanistan, Pool A match in Sydney in caricatures)
Q: Andy, you said before the match that you wanted your top order to really make a good start for you. I suppose that’s where the game and won and lost this evening, was it?
Andy Moles (AM): I think it was a good toss to win. I think the conditions were very, very helpful for whoever was going to bowl first. I’d have to say that James Anderson, as we all know, in those conditions is one of the better bowlers in the world, and he’s thrown the ball and bowled very well, and unfortunately we just lost a little bit of composure and too many soft dismissals. But our guys will leave this tournament with a lot of good memories and a lot of learning that’s gone on in this tournament, and we’ll go back and we’ll review, we’ll look at where we need to get better, and we’ll come back a lot stronger from this experience.
Q: Andy, you had a choice before the tournament in terms of your of some of your choices with your batting you could have gone maybe a bit older, and you perhaps went a little bit younger. How do you feel that’s panned out, and do you feel you’ve sort of, I suppose, made an investment for the future beyond this tournament?
AM: I think we’ve got a senior top order player in Noor Ali, who unfortunately got injured a month before the tour, who was a regular opener who’s been around for a long time, more of a traditional opener, looks to bat time, bat through, and we’ve obviously missed him here.
He had a back injury. And what we had is what we’ve brought. Before coming to play against the full member nations, this batting group were very successful and did well against the warm-up people we played against like Ireland, Scotland, the UAE, and they scored runs and batted well.
Obviously the exposure to the next level has found us a little bit short in technique, and that’s what we’re going to go away and learn on. The boys have given it 100 per cent. They’ve worked really hard in between fixtures on practice. I couldn’t ask for any more by way of their preparation. But as I say, we’ll go away, we’ll look at it, the players will look at it, we’ll review, and we’ll come back a lot stronger for the experiences that we’ve got here.
Q: How hopeful are you that you’ll be back on this kind of stage in a World Cup in four years time?
Mohammad Nabi (MN): Yeah, we have four years’ time, as well. We have a lot of talent back home and we’ll try our best to come back strongly. We missed some players as well.
Q: Andy, what do you think about the plans for 2019 and the cutting to 10 teams?
AM: I think it’s been a question that’s been well explored across everywhere from (Sachin) Tendulkar to the coaches of the associate nations. I think on the whole, the associates have put up a good fist and shown that they’ve improved from the performances of the sides this year was better than the last World Cup and from the World Cup before. I think the trend is going up. My personal opinion is it’s called the World Cup, and the secret is in the name.
If it’s the World Cup let’s have as many nations play as possible. Around that, I understand there’s financial implications, but I think that there’s a Champions Trophy where it’s cut down to the full members, and I think the World Cup has an opportunity to develop the game and move the game forward. We’ve had some players who have done particularly well in this tournament, Hamid Hassan, who I think everybody in world cricket will be grateful to have seen him bowl and he’s a character; Shapoor; Sami has done well; Najib has played well, amongst others.
I think it’s an opportunity and it’s a shop window where people at our level get the opportunity to play against the best players in the world. We ask them to train hard, we ask them to physically train hard, and yet where can they test themselves if they can’t test themselves against the best. I think that Ireland have got a great game on Sunday. We wish them well. Hope they do well. Scotland have played well in this tournament. The UAE have had an opportunity to do well. So I think all four sides have represented themselves well.
There’s a certain mystique about the associate nations playing in this tournament, and I think it would be something that would be lost if they weren’t given the opportunity to do it again.
Q: Andy, obviously a successful tournament for you guys in your terms, but for a cricket-mad nation, how do you think the players will be received when they get back?
AM: I’m sure that they’ll be received with huge warmth. We all saw the celebrations that happened all around Afghanistan with the win against Scotland. But I think the captain would be the first to admit, as well, we’d liked to do a little bit better with some of the other games, but that’s something we’ll work on. One thing I can say is that the Afghan players are a very proud bunch of young men that want to do well, not for themselves but for the unification and the message it sends around the world from Afghanistan.
So I know, I’m sure that when they do get home in two, three days time that they will be warmly received, and I’m sure they’ll enjoy it.
Q: Captain, you’ve had experience now playing against a number of full member nations in this World Cup. I wonder what’s the hardest thing about facing a full member competitor over an associate, and perhaps which country gave you the hardest match? Which bowlers were the hardest to deal with?
MN: It’s a little bit difficult to play against the top ranking bowlers, to bowl to top ranking batsmen, as well. But against Australia in Perth it was difficult to play because of the condition. Maybe in the whole tournament that was the most difficult one.
Courtesy: ICC
