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| AFGHANISTAN
Population: 31,889,923 (2007 estimate)
Population Aged 0-15: 44.6%
National coach: Taj Malik Alam
National captain: Nowroz Mangal
Cricket clubs: 320
Grounds: 0
Turf wickets: 6
Women’s Cricket: No
Playing season: September to May
ACC Member since 2003
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| National player Noor Ali Zadran encounters W.G. Grace at Lord's, June 2006 |
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Recent Achievements:
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| Afghanistan are the rising stars of Asian
cricket. Already with a global following, they play with dash and
panache, care only for winning and consider every match played to
be a matter of national honour. Since becoming ACC members their
progress has been rapid and had it not been for tactical naïveté and
an ability to countenance anything else but big hits against spinners,
it would be they and not Hong Kong who would be in the next Asia
Cup.
Had they qualified for the 2008 Asia Cup in Pakistan, they would have had huge support for it is in the North West Frontier Province, in the camps established during the Afghan Wars of Liberation from 1979 onwards that cricket first became popular amongst the displaced Afghans.
To this day,
Afghan cricketers play in Pakistan domestic cricket and many are
proud to claim a common ancestral heritage with their Pakistani brothers.
Robin Marlar, President of the Marylebone Cricket Club, said in 2006 that there are a couple of Afghan cricketers already good enough to play Test cricket. When there are more cricketers, and when all the efforts of those who wish to see Afghani cricket succeed coalesce, then Afghanistan will truly have a team capable of playing in a World Cup.
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| A billboard put up in Kabul after the team returned from India having played the MCC in Mumbai, April 2006 |
Cricket is playing a big part in rebuilding Afghanistan after
the recent wars. |
2007 ACC U-19 Elite finalists |
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AFGHANISTAN CRICKET FEDERATION
National Cricket Academy
Ghazi Stadium
P.O. Box 1824
Kabul
Afghanistan
Phone : + 93 79918 1461 / 79904 1861 / 79933 7678
Fax : + 93 20 210 2470
Email: taj_afghancricket@hotmail.com
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