“The President of Afghanistan calls me every match day to check on me,” Rashid Khan once said when asked what his IPL stint meant for war-torn Afghanistan. “The whole country watches the IPL religiously because Afghan players are playing in it. We are looked upon as a ray of hope in our country and that for me is deeply satisfying.”
Rashid is a superstar in Kabul. He stands for aspiration and hope, joy and fulfilment. From wanting to take a selfie with Sachin Tendulkar to dreaming of playing in the 2019 World Cup as captain of Afghanistan, and now to being recognised as the best T20 bowler, Rashid’s story has all that is good about modern sport.
Riding on players making it big in T20 leagues across the world, Afghanistan are fast turning into a force to reckon with in the format. With Rashid and Noor Ahmad running through a very good Rajasthan Royals batting line-up, the Afghan story is one that cricket can be justly proud of. It helps add meat to a shrinking cricket market and helps enhance the cricket-watching population in Asia. With Nepal stepping up to join Afghanistan, it could be argued that Asia is fast becoming to cricket what Europe is to world football.
Nepal and Afghanistan come as a whiff of fresh air for the International Cricket Council (ICC). With attendances for cricket matches falling in venues across the world, the future of the sport itself has been under debate for a while now. This is more so for Tests and 50-over cricket. T20, it must be acknowledged, is now the game’s most marketable form and the 50-over game, once considered a marketer’s dream, is going through a crisis of identity. That’s where Afghanistan and Nepal come in. Serious interest in the game, fuelled by passionate youth in both these countries, can make Asian cricket robust and dynamic, while adding much to the fortunes of the game.
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To substantiate the point: one of the central stories coming out of this IPL is that of the Afghan spin twins, Rashid and Noor.
One of the key things associated with sport is its ability to motivate and inspire. It is all real life and not reel, and that’s what makes the Afghanistan and Nepal stories fascinating. Both are fascinating accounts of the power of modern sport to give new meaning to life. From playing with sticks and plastic bags that passed off as bats and cricket balls on the streets of Kabul, to taking on India at St Lucia at the World T20 in the Caribbean (2010) within five years, Afghanistan’s rise to the top has been phenomenal. And it can’t simply be attributed to talent. A deep-seated desire to combat the challenges life has presented them with, including death at every corner, and a kind of resilience that has little parallel in the contemporary sporting world. If they keep throwing up stars like Rashid, Noor, and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, it will be one of the best things to happen to the game in recent times.
In fact, both the Afghanistan and Nepal stories have a feel-good air to them since they leave you with a feeling of hope that no barrier is ever insurmountable. It proves that not only in cinema, but in real life too, a journey from the misery of poverty to the glitz and glamour of stardom is possible if you have the vision and zeal to work hard. It also instills belief in the clichéd and much-abused saying that there is no substitute for hard work.
Let’s go back to Rashid one more time. “Cricket has given people in Afghanistan a new life meaning,” he said. “It is evident that not all is lost. That things can be done and there is much more to life than insurgency and warfare. Cricket inspires us to work hard. Push ourselves in the hope of doing better than we have ever done.”
As the youngest captain to lead an international side, Rashid sounds more mature than his years. He sounds more like a philosopher than a cricketer, but what he, and the Nepal story, represent can best be summed up in one simple word – hope. And that’s what world cricket needs at the moment, to combat all the negative forces at play.
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