New Delhi: Afghanistan cricket has been thrown into turmoil, with leg spinner and the country’s best-known star, Rashid Khan, resigning from his role as captain of the men’s T20 team; Cricket Australia announcing that a one-off test, scheduled between the two nations for 27 November, is in danger of cancellation; and the women’s game could completely disappear due to the rise of the new Taliban regime.
On Thursday, Rashid Khan resigned a little over 20 minutes after the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) announced the 15-member squad for the upcoming Men’s T20 World Cup taking place in UAE and Oman.
“The selection committee and ACB has not obtained my consent for the team which has been announced by ACB media,” Rashid tweeted.
??? pic.twitter.com/zd9qz8Jiu0
— Rashid Khan (@rashidkhan_19) September 9, 2021
The ACB named allrounder and Rashid’s Sunrisers Hyderabad teammate, Mohammad Nabi, as the replacement. “InshaAllah together we will present a great picture of the nation in the upcoming T20 World Cup,” Nabi tweeted.
At this critical stage, I admire the decision of ACB for the announcement of leading the National Cricket Team in T20 Format. InshaAllah together we will present a great picture of the Nation in the upcoming T20 World Cup.
— Mohammad Nabi (@MohammadNabi007) September 9, 2021
Current cricketing conundrum
Rashid’s resignation comes amid a turbulent and uncertain period of Afghanistan cricket, as its next Test match, scheduled for 27 November away to Australia in Hobart, may not go ahead.
Cricket Australia announced Thursday that the first ever Test match between the two nations would be cancelled if the new Taliban government bans women from playing professional cricket, as recent media reports have suggested.
“Our vision for cricket is that it is a sport for all and we support the game unequivocally for women at every level,” Cricket Australia said in a statement.
An update on the proposed Test match against Afghanistan ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/p2q5LOJMlw
— Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) September 9, 2021
Australia men’s Test captain Tim Paine expressed his full support for CA’s statement and said that it will be “very hard to see” how Afghanistan can be allowed by the ICC to play in the T20 World Cup, according to a report by ESPNCricinfo.
Amid all this, cricket still goes on for the next generation of Afghanistan male cricketers, with the Under-19 team currently in Bangladesh for a tour consisting of five one-day matches followed by a four-day red-ball match.
The first one-dayer took place at Sylhet Friday, in which the Bangladesh U-19 team defended its total of 154 to record a 16-run victory over the Afghans. But the team’s future fixtures beyond this tour remain unclear.
All this a far cry from 2018, when then-national chief selector and former captain Nawroz Mangal had declared Afghanistan cricket to be in “a brilliant, new dawn”.
Three years on, the return of the Taliban to political power threatens to bring the progress made in Afghanistan cricket in the last decade to a screeching halt.
A closer look into some of the issues surrounding cricket in Afghanistan, however, suggest that the Taliban has been far from the only obstacle, with alleged mismanagement by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and the years of neglect towards women’s cricket as factors.
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A revolving door of captains
Rashid Khan’s resignation from Afghanistan captaincy is not his first departure from the role. He had previously been appointed Afghanistan captain in all three formats in July 2019, following Afghanistan’s disastrous ODI World Cup campaign under the brief tenure of Gulbadin Naib.
Veteran middle-order batsman Asghar Afghan then replaced Rashid as captain in December 2019, after the latter had led the side in just two Tests, three ODIs and three T20s, all of which were part of the same series against the West Indies.
Asghar himself had taken over as the team’s limited-overs captain from Mohammad Nabi in 2015, and also led the team in its first ever Test against India in 2018. He was first sacked in April 2019, a move that was heavily criticised by both Nabi and Rashid Khan.
Asghar’s second sacking came in May this year, with the ACB announcing Rashid’s return to the limited overs role and handing over the Test reins to top-order batsman Hashmatullah Shahidi.
The last two years have thus seen five unceremonious leadership changes in Afghan men’s cricket, with the ACB repeatedly either naming a completely new captain or reappointing a previously sacked one, without providing any of the captains with the necessary time and patience to implement their strategies across formats.
Trouble behind the scenes
The abrupt turnover within a short period of time has also taken place higher up in the ACB, whose selection panels and executive positions have changed hands just as often as those of the playing staff.
Mangal had been appointed as the chief selector immediately after his retirement, but less than two years later, he was among the casualties of a policy of “sweeping changes” and “reforms” within the ACB, according to an opinion piece on alleged political interference in Afghanistan cricket, published by Afghan news site Pajhwok in 2019.
These reforms, the piece stated, began with the appointment of Azizullah Fazli as ACB chairman, under whose tenure the captaincy change from Asghar Afghan to Gulbadin Naib had taken place.
Azizullah Fazli appointed as new Chairman of #Afghanistan #Cricket board @ACBofficials pic.twitter.com/youhwtO6yC
— Pajhwok Afghan News (@pajhwok) September 19, 2018
Fazli had replaced “the entire top brass of ACB, including the chairman Atif Mashal and CEO Shafiqullah Stanikzai”, who “were removed from their posts” in September 2018, according to ESPNCricinfo.
After Afghanistan lost nine out of nine matches at the 2019 ODI World Cup, Fazli was replaced by Ferhan Yusefzai, while then-CEO Asadullah Khan was replaced by Lutfullah Stanikzai, who was himself sacked just a year later for performance reasons, as well as alleged “misbehaviour with managers”.
Asadullah came in the media glare again in July this year, this time for his resignation from the position of chief selector, citing excessive interruptions and interference by “non-cricketers” on selection matters.
After the Taliban’s takeover, the revolving door of names amongst the ACB higher-ups continued with Fazli’s re-appointment as chairman on 28 August.
All the aforementioned turnover and board mismanagement were reported to have taken place after Afghanistan had been awarded full membership, Test status and additional annual funding from the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2017.
Neglect of women’s cricket predates Taliban’s comeback
The group that arguably has missed out the most on Afghanistan’s cricketing rise in the last decade has been prospective women cricketers.
First reports of a full-fledged Afghan women’s cricket team emerged in 2010, nine years after Afghanistan had become an ICC member. However, the team received few opportunities to play competitive games, and according to a Reuters report, was quietly disbanded in 2014, with team founder Diana Barakzai alleging that they were never supported by the ACB.
According to The Telegraph UK, participation levels rose “dramatically” after Afghanistan played in its first ever men’s ODI World Cup in 2015. But there were no signs of support or a professional team for women from the ACB, even though ICC had mandated the setting up of a women’s team for every Full Member nation.
It wasn’t until November 2020, long after the Trump administration had struck a deal with the Taliban over the future of Afghanistan, that the ACB had announced central contracts for 25 women cricketers.
In April 2021, the ICC then awarded all women’s teams belonging to Full Member nations permanent Test and ODI status.
With the return of the Taliban, Afghan national women’s cricketer Roya Samim was reported by The Guardian to have left the country, and alleged that she and her teammates received no support from the ACB or the ICC, in contrast to the aid that members of the women’s football team received.
Afghanistan cricket, thus, is at huge risk of going back to its pre-2001 state, but the Taliban’s stance is not the sole reason.
(Edited by Arun Prashanth)
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