Back home, the fans go berserk with joy

Rohit Mahajan in Perth

The line to Kandahar is a bit unsteady, but the voice of the man at the other end of the line is steady and strong and full of emotion. Maybe it’s the line that’s crackling. Or do we hear gunshots on the phone from where Hasti Abid Gul, former Afghanistan cricketer, is today?

“People are all celebrating here,” confirms Gul, who last played for his country in 2009, and who is now involved in the country’s coaching and administrative set-up. “You can’t imagine how big this win, the first for our team in the World Cup, is for the people here. This has led to a wave of happiness passing through the country. People are celebrating… They do it here by firing guns in the sky!”

“We all Afghans know that Indian is our friend and is always happy about Afghanistan cricket,” he adds. “Victory today caused happiness here. People celebrated it with much firing, atishabzai!”

Gul is proud that his team had registered its first win in the World Cup; the pride is swelled by the fact that the players have had to fight against adversity at every step to learn the sport, to get the training, to compete with the bigger teams and, eventually, to qualify for the World Cup.

Gul is delighted that, despite being novices in the world of cricket, the team gives frequent shocks to cricket’s old world. He’s not surprised that Afghanistan beat Scotland today. In the cricket’s nether world, these teams have had frequent encounters. “We’ve beaten them five times out of eight matches in the past,” says Gul. But in their most recent game, in Abu Dhabi last month, Afghanistan were crushed by Scotland, being bowled out for 63 when chasing 214.

Smaller World Cup

The reward for their hard work and impressive progress is that the World Cup will close its doors on the smaller nations, the “minnows”.

There were 16 teams in the 2011 World Cup; the number was reduced to 14 for the current tournament; four years on, the World Cup will have 10 teams. Just figure this out: The ICC wants to spread cricket from beyond the very limited boundaries of the Commonwealth nations and South Africa. But when teams want to get into the ICC’s biggest party, the door is slammed on their faces.

Gul says that it would be great if the World Cup had as many small teams as possible.

Gul is currently training with the national junior players, for the ICC tournaments ahead. If some youngster asks him what is the point of working so hard if the ICC doesn’t care to have them at the World Cup, Gul would have no answer.

There’s an answer. It’s strange, but it’s not inexplicable. It’s about money. Smaller nations don’t bring much revenues to the ICC, which knows the power of money but doesn’t know the value of passion and sport..