Cricket in Afghanistan has seen a meteoric rise. The team has been qualifying for the ICC T20 World Cup since 2010. They have played two ICC World Cups in 2015 and 2019. Afghan players like Rashid Khan and Mubeeb Ur-Rehman have been in the top 10 bowling rankings in T20Is and are sought after in various T20 leagues across the world.
Former Pakistan captain and nation's Prime Minister praised the progress of Afghanistan cricket despite all challenges.
Answering a question about the promotion of sports in Afghanistan, especially cricket, PM Imran Khan pointed out that no country in the history of cricket had achieved as much as Afghanistan in such a short period of time.
“The position at which Afghanistan stands at the moment in cricket was realised by other countries in 70 years,” he said during a Q&A with a delegation of Pak-Afghan Youth Forum (PAYF), which called on him at PM Office.
The Pakistan Prime Minister said that this was only possible because the Afghan refugees learnt that game in Pakistan. During his maiden Kabul visit in 2020, Imran Khan invited the Afghan cricket team to visit Pakistan. The players gifted him a signed bat during the meeting.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are set to face-off in their first bilateral series in a three-match ODI series. The series which was supposed to be hosted in UAE has now been rescheduled and shifted to Sri Lanka between 1 and 5 September. The change in location is due to the scheduled second phase of IPL 2021 in UAE.
(geo.tv inputs)
