“I don’t know much about them but I have heard that some of their players started the game in Pakistan and have played a lot of their cricket there. And they are clearly useful.”
As well-documented as Afghanistan’s rise is, from cricket’s early days in the refugee camps of northern Pakistan in the 1990s to full membership as a Test nation six years ago, it is still remarkable how relatively unknown the country’s men’s team is only existed in 2006.
Mike Gatting was the captain speaking here, perhaps feeling a little like Jos Buttler did last week after the MCC side led by the 48-year-old suffered a 171-run defeat against Afghanistan at the Police Gymkhana Ground in Mumbai had to accept. The game was added to the tour by Robin Marlar, a forward-thinking president of the MCC, and for the Afghans, as the Guardian reported at the time, it was “the crowning achievement of their young international career.”
It’s fair to say that Marine Drive’s crowning achievement has been surpassed a number of times since, not least by the events in Delhi last Sunday. And one of the great things about Afghanistan’s eye-catching 69-run win at the Arun Jaitley Stadium – apart from the fact that it was a bang, their first win against England in their history and only their second in 50-over World Cups overall acted – is a cricketer who played in both games.
Mohammad Nabi didn’t just make up the numbers on the day Gatting’s selection of minor county cricketers suffered a setback. At just 21, when Afghanistan was still two years away from climbing to the bottom rung of the international rankings, he was the star that signaled the promise of the nation as a whole, with a blistering 116 from 44 balls, including 13 sixes, three or more Four of them were apparently monstrous.
“[Nabi] “It was extraordinary that day,” Gatting tells Spin. “We thought we had them at a manageable score and I think we dropped him early in his innings. But once he found the center of the bat, he hit for miles. Balls flew onto nearby train tracks or hit buildings 100 meters away. They were a very good team.”
It was enough to earn Nabi and fast bowler Hamid Hassan a season among MCC’s young cricketers this year – the first spell abroad in a road career. They shared a small room in a hostel in Hampstead, lived on fish and chips, trained in international facilities, bowled in front of England players in the nets and experienced games against county opponents. “A great adventure,” is how Nabi has since described that summer.
Mohammad Nabi has managed to thrive in the franchise cricket era with his classic off-spin. Photo: Matt Roberts/ICC/Getty Images
Only the stubborn can begrudge a player like Nabi for giving English cricket an edge, even if it was tested last Sunday. Today, at 38, he is a seasoned professional, a veteran of all major franchise leagues and part of a three-man spin phalanx that shared eight of England’s 10 wickets. Immaculate figures of two for 16 from six overs began with the coveted skin of the in-form Dawid Malan and then helped extinguish a potential lower order chase by removing Sam Curran.
Both dismissals were beautiful bowling performances from the most orthodox members of the trio. While Rashid Khan delivers blistering wrist spin and Mujeeb Ur Rahman offers a touch of fingertip mystery, Nabi is a classic off-spinner – the kind that many believed would die out in the big hits era of Twenty20. Escape and a juicy dive proved undoing for Malan and Curran, with the former diving to cover and the latter to slip.
And as Afghanistan’s advance became inevitable, a pretty cool statistic emerged, beyond Nabi winning his 150th one-day international among the 155 Afghans. According to The Cricketer’s Nick Friend, England became the 43rd national team to be beaten in a cricketing life that began when, in exile, he began playing with the refugees in Peshawar. In a sport that is essentially a closed shop, where a star like Joe Root, for example, has only competed against 11 countries in 11 years, this underlines the journey that both he and Afghanistan have taken.
Skip the newsletter advertising
Subscribe to our cricket newsletter to get our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a look back at the week’s events
“,”newsletterId”:”the-spin”,”successDescription”:”Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a look back at the action of the week”}” config=”{“renderingTarget” :”Web”}”>Data protection: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertisements and content sponsored by external parties. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
after newsletter advertising
The teams? In order (and not at all ICC events it should be said): Bahrain, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, Thailand, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Bahamas, Botswana, Jersey, Fiji, Tanzania, Italy, Hong Kong, Argentina, Papua New Guinea, Cayman Islands, Oman, Denmark, Bermuda, Ireland, Scotland, Netherlands, China, Namibia, Singapore, Canada, USA, Kenya, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Bhutan, Maldives, Barbados, Uganda , Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, West Indies, Sri Lanka and now England.
Was the most recent one a surprise? Opinions differ. Some point out that Afghanistan were seventh in the seedings, and since they had qualified directly, this wasn’t a total slam dunk. For example, if the West Indies had swooped in and beaten England, it wouldn’t have provoked the same reaction. Perhaps the best keyword is simply “historic”, of which there can be little doubt (although Spin personally considers it a real shock given the disparity in resources and the fact that they were the defending champions).
Unfortunately, some of the romance here is tempered by the knowledge that Afghanistan’s previously contracted women’s cricketers remain out, with 22 of them living abroad since the return of the Taliban in late 2021. It remains a truly worrying issue for the sport and international cricket The council, whose full membership requires both genders to have cricket programs in place – and yet apparently not.
With the International Criminal Court sitting still, it may require individual countries or bodies to intervene and help the current group of cricket exiles from Afghanistan. As the extremely useful Nabi proves, a little help can go a long way.
This is an extract from the Guardian’s weekly cricket email, The Spin. To sign up, simply visit this page and follow the instructions.
Comments are closed.