Brussels, June 15 (PTI) There were days when Dawood Ahmadzai could only shed tears while watching a Hashmatullah Shahidi hit a cover drive or a Mohammed Nabi bowl a classical off-break.
At times he would wonder what went wrong that his former Afghanistan U19 teammates like Shahidi and likes of Nabi, Gulbadin Naib or Najibullah Zadran, with whom he played competitive cricket were all making waves on the international circuit and T20 leagues while he was trying to figure out if there was any cricket left in him.
“There were many times when I cried watching them on television. They were my teammates. We played together. Sometimes I would think about what happened to my journey and how different things could have been,” Ahmadzai, now 32, was a trifle emotional while speaking to PTI.
“Of course, I wanted to wear that Afghanistan shirt,” he said. “Those players are my friends and teammates. I played a lot of cricket with them. But life took me somewhere else.” That “somewhere else” was France where the leg-spinner took refuge after having played for the Afghanistan U-19s.
But his journey was far from straightforward.
After leaving Afghanistan, Ahmadzai rebuilt his cricket career from scratch in Europe. There were years when he travelled 11 hours by bus from Paris to Amsterdam to play club cricket in the Netherlands because train tickets were a luxury he couldn’t afford.
Healthy and filling meal at times became rarity.
“When you start from zero, you have nothing,” he tells you.
“I would travel 11 hours by bus, play the match and then travel another 11 hours back. I always believed that this difficult time would pass. I never thought about leaving cricket. This is the only thing that makes me happy.” That perseverance has turned Ahmadzai into a pioneering figure in French cricket.
He recently became the first French international cricketer to claim more than 50 T20I scalps, a landmark for someone who had wondered if there would be meaningful opportunity coming his way.
Yet personal milestones are not what drive him. His focus remains fixed on a far bigger goal.
“I want to help France play a World Cup,” he said citing the Italian example.
“Italy have shown that European countries can make it. We hope France can do it too.” With advent of European T20 Premier League, Ahmadzai believes that he can show his wrist spin artistry to a broader audience while rubbing shoulders with game’s greats while he gearing up to represent Akcel United Brussels.
In Brussels franchise, he will have former Proteas great Mark Boucher as the head coach and a mentor with whom his thoughts align. As Boucher speaks about the future of associate cricket, he keeps returning to one example. Afghanistan.
“The moment players started getting opportunities in leagues around the world, there was belief throughout the country that cricket could change lives.” “The IPL has shown the world what franchise cricket can do,” he said.
“SA20 has done the same in South Africa. These tournaments create opportunities for players to learn and improve much faster.” The learning extends well beyond what happens in the middle.
“When players share dressing rooms with international stars, they learn things that coaches can’t always teach,” Boucher explained.
“They learn professionalism, preparation, how to train, how to handle pressure and how to think about the game. When players like Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi started travelling around the world, they brought knowledge and experience back home,” he said.
“Younger players saw that pathway and started believing they could do it too.” That same principle is what organisers hope tournaments such as the European T20 Premier League can achieve.
The competition has attracted established names including Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Rilee Rossouw and Sheldon Cottrell, but Boucher believes the real value lies in the opportunities being created for players from emerging cricket nations like Ahmadzai.
“The stars bring attention, but the associate players gain exposure,” he said.
“They get to train and play alongside experienced professionals every day. That’s how careers change.” Ahmadzai could not agree more.
“I always say associate countries have talent,” he said.
“What they need is exposure. Sometimes people don’t trust what you can do because of where you come from. When they finally see you play, then they realise.” Boucher is careful not to predict how quickly European countries can close the gap with the bigger cricketing nation.
With family commitments back home, he is not looking beyond his current assignment in Belgium.
But he is convinced that meaningful progress requires patience.
“You can’t judge these projects after one year,” he said.
“You need a long-term vision. Five years, maybe longer. Every successful competition had to start somewhere,” he signed off. PTI HN KHS KHS KHS
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