Proud to be an Afghan: Cricket in the Shadow of War | REWIND

When Raees Ahmadzai first became aware of cricket he was eight years old and living in a refugee camp in Pakistan's northwest Frontier Province. It was 1992 and Pakistan were about to win the Cricket World Cup.
Like millions of other Afghans, Raees and his family had sought refuge in neighbouring Pakistan after the Soviet invasion of 1979. There, cricket was already an established passion.
Cricket ... now it's the number one game in Afghanistan. That has taken them away from the streets, where the only thing they knew was to carry guns and to fight. So now instead of guns, they're carrying cricket bats.
Iqbal Sikander, 1992 World Cup winner
"I was in school at the refugee camp when Pakistan won the 1992 World Cup ... Everyone was happy, the teacher was happy, people were celebrating. We'd say, what's this World Cup?" Raees recalled.
Little did Raees know that the game he was watching, but barely understood, would go on to change his life.
"'Slowly slowly we started playing cricket ... For maybe five or six years we played cricket without shoes, or without anything. Even in 45 or 50 degrees heat. That was tough."
Raees quickly excelled. He started playing league matches in Pakistan and became a central figure in the emerging Afghan cricket team.
Games such as cricket and football were banned and condemned by the Taliban in the early years of their austere rule, which began in 1996, but they lifted the cricket ban in 2000.
In 2001, a US-led invasion toppled the Taliban. In the same year, Afghanistan's national cricket team was formed and their cricket board formally recognised as an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council.
At the time, they had no world ranking and no home pitch. But they had a generation of talented players.
"We have no facilities, we have no ground, no salaries, no nothing, but we have unity. There are no barriers between us, we are together as one. We are just playing for our country and we play from our heart to represent our people and our nation," Raees told Al Jazeera's Andy Richardson 10 years ago as he was getting ready to play in the T20 World Cup qualifier.
"We are doing something special for our country, something for peace. We want to change the minds of people and convince them that war is bad. I want the whole country to have the same unity our team does."
Since then, Afghanistan's cricket team has found a new home among the sports world's elite.
In 2019, Rewind talked to Raees and Andy Richardson about Afghan cricket today and what has changed since Al Jazeera filmed the team ahead of the 2010 T20 World Cup.
Raees said that nowadays "everyone knows about cricket ... Cricket is the number one sport in Afghanistan. All the youngsters want to play cricket ... and they get a lot of support."
Since his retirement from the national team in 2010 Raees has worked in different positions on the Afghan Cricket Board and is currently working with the Afghanistan Under-19 team as a head coach. He believes that sport, and cricket specifically, continues to have a positive effect on Afghans and how the war-torn nation is perceived abroad.
"Cricket gave a good name to Afghanistan. I remember when I was the captain we went to England; I can't remember the exact name ... it was a very small village. We had a cricket match there and people ... had no idea about Afghanistan. They just knew Afghanistan because of the war ... They told us that they never thought that Afghan people would play cricket ... So cricket gave a good name to Afghanistan all over the world."
Cricket is often viewed as a "product of British colonialism, a legacy of the empire" explains Richardson. "But Afghanistan cricket has emerged in a completely different way. These guys 15 years ago were learning cricket in Pakistan in refugee camps. There was no legacy from the English. They learned their cricket in a very tough way, street cricket; playing tape-ball cricket. It meant bowlers emerged of the like no-one had ever seen in the world. And as a consequence now, they are like gold dust ... They are playing all over the world."
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[@sreekeshmohanan9728]

Afghan....most loved cricket team for me...after my countries team...

[@outcastefilms]

Sreekesh Mohanan what is your country

[@subashvenugopal9952]

@@outcastefilms India

[@Lonic18]

@@subashvenugopal9952 bro u can't predict someone's race

[@dipanpathak]

Alas 🙏now i am sure that how baised al Jazeera really is, no mention of india in the growth of Afghanistan cricket

[@thehiddenhunter6534]

What u on about, India has got nothing to do with Afghanistan cricket team

[@ravikantvishwakarma112]

@@thehiddenhunter6534 there team trains in India, practice in India, plays in India. BCCI gave them Dehradun stadium, new stadium is developed for them in Noida and India has no role in Afghanistan Cricket 🤷‍♂️

[@amitparashar3772]

This documentary is only made for showing Pakistan a great country 🤣 Don't take this channel seriously

[@dipanpathak]

@@thehiddenhunter6534 afghanistan currently plays all its home matches in india, they also have training grounds which is also provided by our BCCI, i dont want any gesture of thanks or anything but i think it is wrong that al Jazeera doesn't even takes the name of india in connection to Afghanistan cricket

[@thenavigator3422]

@@thehiddenhunter6534 The International stadium in Lucknow, India is currently the home ground of Team Afghanistan.

[@sameedwasi4566]

Love seeing even in the mist of hardship. Cricket uniting Afghans. From thier performance in WC, coming close to beating international teams. Next WC thier gona be top teams, love from Karachi 🇵🇰🤝🏻🇦🇫🤝🏻🇵🇰🤝🏻🇦🇫

[@md.rahmatislam3309]

ক্রিকেট দিয়েই নতুন ভাবে পরিচয় লাভ করছে,যুদ্ধাহত এই আফগানিস্তান। স্বাগতম এই 🇧🇩 বাংলাদেশে। আসন্ন সিরিজ সামনে রেখে।

[@mallugexk8135]

I am an Indian... My favourite bowler is Rashid Khan

[@VaidyatheDr]

Afghan indian relations are very strong

[@Rahimullahzadran77]

We are thankful for Allah SWT. Love and respect for Pakistanis brother's the help us much in cricket

[@ahmedmustafa7410]

We always love our Afghan brothers and will support them in every field...

[@subashvenugopal9952]

Now Rashid Khan become top player in the world. Hard work never fails...

[@mohammadessa1876]

Well I must say Al Jazeera another fantastic documentary.

[@saintlugia]

As a westerner it's weird seeing snow in Afghanistan

[@67466476]

Afghanistan is a mountains country and winter is very very cold in Afghanistan

[@infianant]

Al Jajeera ...you didn’t talk about the splendid contribution by India to uplift the Afghan cricket ...you are so biased

[@roopammishra31july]

@Muhammad Sharjeel afganis split on pak

[@sravan7628]

@Muhammad Sharjeel pcb runs on 50% funding by icc which gets its 80 percent income from india. Many afghan cricketers referred india as their second home. The ground in lucknow india is a home ground for afghanistan. India is the first team that afghanistan played test match. And you are talking about bhikari pakistan helping afghan cricket. Virat kohlis ipl salary is much more than entire pcb budget.

[@mndokhail]

❤

[@mumtazkhan4191]

Thank you al Jazeera

[@nasirsyed2306]

It like a division 20 team with no money make it to the Premier league

[@AbhiSingh-dk4zm]

Love Afghanistan cricket team for india

[@VaidyatheDr]

From*

[@Rahimullahzadran77]

8:18 it was very pin full

[@sumanmajumdar7884]

8:18

[@jokholaproduction3317]

❤️❤️❤️

[@ahmadakeeb6680]

💪💪💪

[@hgsafi1210]

My hard Afghanistan

[@manavjkmt]

Afgani players speak better english then pak players ...

[@ahmedmustafa7410]

Ok bro...

[@nahinthelegend7271]

Shut up

[@smartbaba1321]

Islam & democracy can't live together.

[@SurendraSingh-wd2zw]

Afghanistan practise ground close to my home in India ♥

[@afghanwafa1951]

💝🇦🇫♥️🏏😘

[@shayan009ful]

world cup winners afgoonn team 😂

[@kimkim-ng7wb]

Dal cup winner Faqeeristan😂😂😂

[@msdgamingmsdgaming7978]

kim kim u are a legend

[@amanullahafg7724]

India walo tho gand mardia thum logo ka hahaha haha where is kashmir ab hamri hamari Bari Hai

[@subashvenugopal9952]

Don't underestimate anyone

[@kashmir1983]

justice for kashmir Go back india

[@amitparashar3772]

Years Kashmir has already back to India 😂

[@nasradinkhan8654]

Shut up

[@bdfrj1885]

poor cricket Afganstan ha ha

[@amanullahafg7724]

Thum logo ka gand tho mardia we break Pakistan see you in Asia cup kafiristan

[@GANG092603]

flawed and outdated data..