The Afghanistan men's national cricket team (Pashto: د افغانستان کرکټ ملي لوبډله, Persian: تیم ملی کریکت افغانستان) represents Afghanistan in international cricket. Cricket has been played in Afghanistan since the mid-19th century, but it was only in the early 21st century that the national team began to enjoy success. The Afghanistan Cricket Board was formed in 1995, becoming an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2001[14] and a member of the cricket confederation, Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in 2003.[15] After nearly a decade of playing international cricket, on 22 June 2017 full ICC membership (and therefore Test status) was granted to Afghanistan. Alongside Ireland, this took the number of Test cricket playing nations to twelve. Afghanistan is the first country to achieve Full Member status after holding Affiliate Membership of the ICC.[16][17] In view of the persistent conflict and insecurity in Afghanistan, following this status, the team moved to a new home ground in Dehradun, in India.[18][19] The current home ground of the Afghanistan Men's Cricket team is the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the UAE.
The team is ranked 10th in Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket as of February 2023,[20] and holds the world record for the 2nd highest ever T20I score, with their score of 278/3 against Ireland at Dehradun on 23 February 2019.
Taliban spokesmen stated that the Taliban would not disrupt the men's cricket team's participation in international matches and that they would allow Afghanistan to play its first ever bilateral series against Pakistan in Sri Lanka which was scheduled to start in September 2021.[25][26] The Pakistan Cricket Board announced in August 2021 that the tour would be rescheduled to 2022. This was later moved to 2023 and the tour took place between 24 – 27 March 2023.[27]
History
Pre-ODI history
Cricket in Afghanistan was popularised by Afghan expatriates who learnt the sport while living in Pakistan in the 1980s and 1990s, during the post-Soviet invasion era.[28][29] Most members of the early Afghanistan national cricket team grew up in Pakistan and participated in the country's domestic cricket structure, making use of cricket facilities in Peshawar with the support of the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).[30][29] It was during this time that the Afghanistan Cricket Federation (now ACB) was also founded, in 1995.[31] Like all sports, cricket was initially banned by the Taliban, but cricket became an exception in 2000 (being the only sport in Afghanistan to be approved by the Taliban). The ACF received recognition from the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2001.[31]
Afghanistan fielded their cricket team in Pakistan's domestic setup for the first time in the 2001–02 season, participating in the second division of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy where they drew two and lost three of their five games.[32][33] They returned for the Cornelius Trophy in the 2002–03 season, drawing one and losing three matches.[34] In the 2003–04 season, they made an appearance in the PCB's inter-district tournament in Peshawar, where they registered their lone victory against Swabi, drew twice and lost two matches.[33][35]
They began playing in Asian regional tournaments in 2004, finishing sixth in their first ACC Trophy. More success began in 2006 when they were runners-up to Bahrain in the Middle East Cup and beat an MCC side featuring former EnglandcaptainMike Gatting by 171 runs in Mumbai. Gatting was dismissed for a duck.[36]
They toured England in the summer of 2006, winning six out of seven matches. Three of their wins came against the second XIs of Essex, Glamorgan and Leicestershire.[15] They finished third in the ACC Trophy that year, beating Nepal in a play-off match.[36]
They won their first tournament in 2007, sharing the ACC Twenty20 Cup with Oman after the two tied in the final.[36] They began their qualifying campaign for the 2011 World Cup in Jersey in 2008, winning Division Five of the World Cricket League.[37] They finished third in the ACC Trophy Elite tournament the same year,[15] and won a second consecutive WCL tournament, Division Four in Tanzania later in the year.[15]
The Afghanistan national team was coached by former Pakistani cricketers Kabir Khan and Rashid Latif in its initial years.[28][30] During this period, a number of Afghan international cricketers made appearances for Pakistani domestic outfits in the first-class circuit.[29][38][39]
In 2010, Afghanistan competed at the Asian Games, a non-ICC T20 event hosted by China, where they defeated a second-string Pakistan side by 22 runs in the semi-finals in what was considered an upset.[41] In May 2011, the Afghan side embarked on a tour of Pakistan to partake in a three-match limited overs series against Pakistan A, where they were whitewashed by the home side 3–0.[42][38] They followed this up with another tour in September to participate in Pakistan's domestic National T20 Cup in Karachi as the Afghan Cheetahs, but had another poor outing, losing all three of their matches.[43]
In the 2011 Cricket World Cup qualifying tournament, Afghanistan failed to progress to the World Cup, but earned ODI status for four years.[15] Their first ODI was against Scotland in the 5th place playoff, having previously beaten the Scots earlier in the tournament; Afghanistan won by 89 runs.[44] Afghanistan became the only affiliate member to have ODI status.
In the Intercontinental Cup Afghanistan played its first first-class match against a Zimbabwe XI in a four-day match in Mutare. During the match, which was drawn, Afghan batsman Noor Ali scored centuries in both his innings, making him only the fourth player to do so on their first-class debut. Later, in August 2009, they played the Netherlands in same competition at the VRA Cricket Ground, winning a low-scoring match by one wicket.[45]
Afghanistan then took part in the 2009 ACC Twenty20 Cup in the United Arab Emirates. Afghanistan were drawn in Group A, a group which Afghanistan topped at the end of the group stages by winning all five of their matches. In the semi-finals the Afghans defeated Kuwait by 8 wickets.[46] In the final they met the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, whom they defeated by 84 runs.[47]
On 1 February 2010, Afghanistan played their first Twenty20 International against Ireland,[48] which they lost by 5 wickets.[49] On 13 February 2010, Afghanistan defeated the United Arab Emirates by 4 wickets to make their way to the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 to be in the West Indies in April 2010. Later the same day they defeated Ireland by 8 wickets in the Final of 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier to win the qualifier.[50] Afghanistan were in Group C of the main tournament, with India and South Africa. During their first match against India, opening batsman Noor Ali hit 50 runs, helping Afghanistan to a score of 115 in their 20 overs. Despite this they lost the match by 8 wickets.[51] In their second match, the team were reduced to 14/6 at one stage, before a late rally from Mirwais Ashraf and Hamid Hassan helped Afghanistan post 88 all out, resulting in a loss by 59 runs.[52]
In 2011, Afghanistan begun the 2011-13 ICC World Cricket League Championship. They beat Canada and drew with the UAE.[57] In the parallel one-day league, they won two matches against Canada and lost twice to the UAE.[58] In December once again took part in the ACC Twenty20 Cup, this time in Nepal. They went on to win all of their matches to once again take the Cup.
On 10 February 2012, Afghanistan played a one-off One Day International (ODI) match against Pakistan at Sharjah, the first ever official game between the two sides and also the first ever ODI between an Affiliate and a Test-playing nation.[59] Billed as a historic occasion for Afghan cricket, the game was won comfortably by Pakistan by seven wickets with 13 overs to spare.[60][61] They also took on the Australia Cricket Team in an Only ODI at Sharjah in August 2012. They fell short in both matches, but their performance showed they were continuing to make progress. Their 2012 ICC International Cup games were also challenging, resulting in a split with the Netherlands and a loss to Ireland.
2013 brought greater success for Afghanistan. In March, they played two T20 Internationals against Scotland in UAE and prevailed in both matches. They also won two ODIs in the World Cricket League Championship against the same opponents.
In the WCL Championship table, as 2013 dawned Afghanistan was level with Scotland in third, trailing Ireland and the Netherlands for the two automatic qualification spots for the 2015 World Cup. However, two convincing wins in spring over Scotland boosted hopes some. Then in July the Netherlands failed to take any points against Ireland, leaving Afghanistan in position to qualify if they could win their final four matches, against poorer performing Namibia and Kenya. Despite the United Arab Emirates and the Netherlands both being able to win their remaining games, keeping the pressure on Afghanistan, Afghanistan handled Namibia, then defeated Kenya by 8 wickets on 2 October. With one final win over Kenya on 4 October by 7 wickets, Afghanistan secured second in the Championship with 19 points, and qualified for World Cup.[62]
Afghanistan also crushed Scotland in their one-day ICC Intercontinental Cup league in March in Abu Dhabi: Afghanistan (275: Shah 67*, Davey 4–53) beat Scotland (125: Taylor 48*, Dawlatzai 6–57 and 145: Coetzer 57, Dawlatzai 5–37) by an innings and 5 runs. Izatullah Dawlatzai took eleven wickets.[63]
In July 2014 Afghanistan toured Zimbabwe to play its 1st full series against a full member. The 4 match ODI series finished 2–2 and the 2 match first class series finished 1–1.
Afghanistan had become an Affiliate member of the ICC in 2001. Then in 2009 it had attained one-day status until 2015.
In 2012, the Asian Cricket Council decided to nominate Afghanistan for Associate membership with the ICC, with the request being looked into at the ICC's annual conference in June. Becoming an Associate would mean higher funding (the ICC had been paying $700,000 in annual funding to Afghanistan's organization, suggested to rise to $850,000 for Associate status), and also importantly would mean more exposure for the passionate and cricket-starved players from war-torn Afghanistan.[65][66]
In March 2013, Afghanistan received a further support boost when a two-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for the development of Afghanistan cricket ahead of the 2015 World Cup.
The PCB provided technical and professional support, including game-education programmes, coaching courses, skill and performance analysis, and basic umpiring and curator courses. High performance camps for emerging players were also organised. The PCB-regulated National Cricket Academy (NCA) helped in improving technical, tactical, mental and physical skills, and hosted lectures on doping, anti-corruption and various codes of conduct.[67]
In April 2013, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) was also allocated US$422,000 (22,400,000 AFN approx.) from the ICC's targeted assistance and performance programme. The world governing body of cricket approved the grant at its IDI (ICC Development International) board meeting, which concluded in Dubai. The money, to be given over three years, was aimed at developing more competitive teams among ICC Full, Associate and Affiliate members. Previous countries to receive similar funding programmes included the Netherlands, Scotland, the West Indies, Zimbabwe and Ireland. An ICC statement suggested the funding was targeted towards the development of the National Cricket Academy in Kabul.
On 26 June 2013 at the ICC's annual meeting in London, England, Afghanistan received its Associate Membership[68] with the statement:
"Afghanistan is the only country that receives the Associate Membership in a short period of time in reward to the efforts Afghanistan made for the promotion of cricket," (Dr Noor Muhammad, CEO of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), on the ACC website)
Qualification for the tournament was a historic feat for cricket in Afghanistan, one amplified by the fact that the team included many players who picked up the game in refugee camps outside their war-torn country.[69]
Afghanistan made their World Cup debut in the 2015 Cricket World Cup which their first game was against Bangladesh at the Manuka Oval in Canberra, Australia. The match resulted in a 105 run defeat.[70] On 26 February 2015, Afghanistan won their first World Cup match against Scotland, winning by one wicket. The team however, lost all its remaining games and were knocked out of the tournament in the opening round.
2019 Cricket World Cup
The 2019 Cricket World Cup was the second Cricket World Cup in which Afghanistan participated in. Thus, it was Afghanistan's first consecutive World Cup appearance (2015-2019). This World Cup was in a "round robin" format where Afghanistan faced all the other teams but did not manage to claim victory against any national team in the tournament for the first time in their short history in the World Cup tournament.[71]
2023 Cricket World Cup
In the 2023 Cricket World Cup, Afghanistan secured a victory by 69 runs against the defending champions, England, in their third match of the World Cup on 15 October 2023. This was the first time Afghanistan defeated England and the first time Afghanistan defeated the defending Cricket World Cup champions.[72] This was backed up by a first ever victory over Pakistan by 8 wickets in ODI in their 5th match.[citation needed] They also defeated Sri Lanka for the first time in the Cricket World Cup by 7 wickets on 30 October 2023. This was also the first time in a Cricket World Cup that Afghanistan had won two matches consecutively. In the following match, they defeated Netherlands for the first time in the Cricket World Cup. This was the first time Afghanistan achieved three consecutive victories in the Cricket World Cup.
Post-World Cup tours
The team visited Zimbabwe for the second time in October where Afghanistan clinched a historic one-day international series over Zimbabwe after a 73-run victory in Bulawayo saw them win 3–2.
Doing so, they became the first non-Test-playing country to win a multi-game bilateral ODI series against a Test side. The Afghanistan cricket team toured the United Arab Emirates to play the United Arab Emirates cricket team in December 2016. The tour consisted of three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. Afghanistan won the series 3–0. The Afghanistan cricket team toured Bangladesh in September and October 2016 to play three One Day Internationals (ODIs) matches. This was Afghanistan's first full series against a Test-playing side other than Zimbabwe and was the first bilateral series between the two sides.
Ahead of the ODI series there was a fifty-over warm-up game between the Bangladesh Cricket Board XI and Afghanistan in Fatullah. Afghanistan won the warm-up match by 66 runs and Bangladesh won the ODI series 2–1.
The Afghan cricket team toured Zimbabwe between January and February 2017. The tour consisted of five One Day International(ODI) matches. Prior to the ODI series, the Afghanistan A cricket team played five "unofficial" ODI matches against the Zimbabwe A cricket team. All of those matches had been designated List A status. Afghanistan won the initial List A series 4–1 and the ODI series 3–2.
2017
The Ireland cricket team toured India during March 2017 to participate in a series of matches against Afghanistan, consisting of three T20 matches, five ODI contests and an ICC Intercontinental Cup match.[74] All the matches took place in Greater Noida. The Afghan team were highly successful, emerging victorious in both the T20I series 3–0 and the ODI series 3–2. Afghanistan also won the ICC Intercontinental Cup match, by the margin of an innings and 172 runs.
The Afghanistan cricket team completed another tour in June 2017, this time facing the West Indies.[75] The tour marked Afghanistan's first bilateral tour against a full member nation other than Zimbabwe. (Later that month, Afghanistan itself was awarded that status). The tour was less successful for the Afghans, who were convincingly defeated 3–0 in the T20 series.[76] They performed better in the ODI series, seizing a 1–1 draw after the final match was washed out with no result. Afghanistan registered their first win against Sri Lanka in Asia Cup.
Towards Test status
Afghanistan qualified for 2012 ICC World Twenty20 held in Sri Lanka as the runner up of the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier and joined India and England in the group stage. In the first match against India on 19 September, Afghanistan won the toss and elected to field. India posted 159/5 in 20 overs but Afghanistan fell short of that target by scoring 136 in 19.3 overs. In the second match against England on 21 September, Afghanistan won the toss and again elected to field. England set a target of 196/5 (20 overs) but Afghanistan were all out for 80 in 17.2 overs. England and India qualified for the Super Eights and Afghanistan were eliminated as a result of this match.
On 3 October 2013, Afghanistan beat Kenya to finish second in the WCL Championship and qualify for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, becoming the 20th team to gain entry into the tournament overall. Afghanistan secured their passage to Australia and New Zealand in 2015 by beating Kenya comprehensively for the second time in succession in Sharjah, sealing their maiden World Cup qualification. They finished second in the World Cricket League Championship — nine wins in 14 matches — and joined Ireland as the second Associate team in the 2015 World Cup, while the remaining two spots for Associates will be decided by a qualifying tournament in New Zealand in 2014. Afghanistan will join Pool A at the World Cup along with Australia, Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and another qualifier.[77] On 24 November 2013, Afghanistan beat Kenya to qualify for the 2014 T20 world cup.
On 25 February 2015, Afghanistan won their first Cricket World Cup match beating Scotland by one wicket. Afghanistan participated in the World Twenty20 2016 in India. They were unable to qualify for the Semi-Finals of the International Tournament. They defeated the eventual champions, West Indies, during their final group match of the tournament.
Their third match was against the full member test team Zimbabwe. They played exceptionally well beating Zimbabwe by 59 runs. Afghanistan qualified for the Super 10 stage of the tournament as a result of this match, while Zimbabwe were eliminated. Afghanistan progressed to the second phase of a World Twenty20 tournament for the first time. On 25 June 2016, Lalchand Rajput was named as head coach of Afghanistan Cricket Team replacing Pakistan's Inzamam ul Haq with his first outings with the team being a tour of Scotland, Ireland and the Netherlands in July and August of that year. He was chosen ahead of Mohammad Yousuf, Herschelle Gibbs and Corey Collymore[78]Rajput is in line for a two-year contract, but that decision would be finalised after the upcoming tour of Europe.
In July 2016, ACB unveiled a strategic plan and set targets for Afghanistan cricket team to be a top-six ODI team by 2019 and a top-three team in both T20Is and ODIs by 2025.[79] In order to achieve this, ACB created a proposal to be presented to BCCI, to secure annual bilateral matches against India and teams touring India beginning the following year.[80] Shafiq Stanikzai, Chief Executive of ACB, said the draft had been presented to BCCI president Anurag Thakur in May and further discussions occurred during the ICC Annual Conference in Edinburgh in June 2016.
On 25 July 2016, Afghanistan confirmed its first full series against West Indies a top-8 ranked Full member.[81] Its earlier full series came against a permanent member of ICC was against Zimbabwe. Afghanistan toured the Caribbean islands in mid-June 2017 and played 5 ODIs and 3 T20Is.
On the same day, it was announced that Afghanistan would host a full series against Ireland at Greater Noida.[82] Besides a 4-day intercontinental cup match, Ireland and Afghanistan would play five ODIs and three T20Is in March 2017. Afghanistan won the T20I series 3-0 and in the process set a new T20I record of 11 consecutive victories.
On 22 June 2017, the International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded Afghanistan full Test status, along with Ireland.[83] In December 2017, the ICC confirmed that Afghanistan were scheduled to play their first Test against India, in late 2018.[84] According to the ICC Future Tours Programme for 2019–23, Afghanistan are scheduled to play thirteen Tests.[85] In January 2018, both the ACB and the BCCI confirmed the Test would be played in June in Bengaluru.[86][87]
In June 2018, Afghanistan lost their maiden Test match to hosts India by an innings and 262 runs, despite being able to bowl out a strong Indian team in the first innings.
In September 2019, Afghanistan beat hosts Bangladesh by 224 runs in a one-off Test tour. Rain almost resulted in the match being drawn, but finally the weather cleared, allowing the spin-unit of Afghanistan to take the final four wickets.
The Flag of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is still used to represent the team in international competitions.
In test matches, Afghanistan wears cricket whites, with optional sweaters and vests for cold weather, with the ACB logo on the right chest of the shirt, the manufacturer logo on the top arm sleeve and the sponsor logo on the center. The fielders wear a red baseball-style cap, or a white sunhat with the ACB logo, and the batsman helmet is coloured similarly, with the Flag of Afghanistan above the ACB logo. In limited-overs cricket, Afghanistan wears a blue uniform in ODI (grey was previously used from 2012 to 2013), with splashes of green, red, black and occasionally, yellow. The ACB logo is featured on the right breast of the shirt and the sponsor logo on the center, with the inscription "AFGHANISTAN" beneath the sponsor logo and the manufacturer logo on the top arm sleeve. For ICC Tournaments, the sponsor logo goes to the non-leading arm sleeve. The fielders wear a blue baseball-style cap or a red sunhat. The helmets are also red. The current sponsor is Monarch Mart, previously Alokozay Group and the kit manufacturer was TYKA Sports.[98]
This lists all the players who have played for Afghanistan in the past 12 months or was named in the most recent Test, ODI or T20I squad. Uncapped players are listed in italics.
^Morgan, Roy (2007). The Encyclopedia of World Cricket. Cheltenham: SportsBooks. p. 15. ISBN978-1-89980-751-2. Afghanistan cricket team was started to play world cup in 2015
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India at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, India 14–18 June 2018
Ireland at Tolerance Oval, Abu Dhabi; 28 February – 1 March 2024
Scotland at Willowmoore Park, Benoni; 19 April 2009
Sri Lanka at Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Dambulla; 21 February 2024
