Cricket
Long term planning and improved domestic structure paying dividend for Afghans
Afghanistan’s Emerging Asia Cup win marks a milestone in their cricketing journey, showcasing the impact of domestic reforms, skilled coaching, and strategic planning by the ACB. Their eyes are now set on achieving similar success at the senior level. This boost in performance hasn’t gone unnoticed by cricket betting fans, with Afghanistan’s growing success making them a more appealing choice for bettors.
Image Credits: ACB photo
Afghans are coming. In the cricketing world their meteoric rise with passing days is considered to be a fairytale affair, if not anything else.
However, despite being an extremely talented squad they are never considered to be a serious title contender as they never won any ICC or ACC tournament so far until the just concluded Emerging Asia Cup.
Their rise at the top among Asian neighbours in the tournament certainly can be regarded as a big milestone in their cricketing history and according to Afghanistan Cricket Board’s chief executive Naseeb Khan it was not fluke rather a by-product of long term planning.
“The Emerging Asia cup win is not a fluke,” Naseeb told Sport Boom recently when his attention was drawn regarding their massive achievement.
It’s an outcome of domestic reforms, proper planning, preparation and exposure.
Naseeb
“It’s an outcome of domestic reforms, proper planning, preparation and exposure,” he said.
Naseeb said that they have decided to reduce teams in domestic level and increase matches and it can be considered as the biggest reform in the domestic structure.
“To improve the quality of competition we reduced the number of teams and increased the number of matches,” said Naseeb.
Image Credits: ACB photo
“Keeping the future assignments in mind and players engaged and match ready, The ACB decided to organize 2 T20 competition [ Qosh Tepa National T20 Cup & prestigious Shpageeza Cricket league] and 2 - 50 overs events [ List A and Green one day cup],” he said
“All the International stars participated in Shpageeza Cricket league while most of the national team players participated in all competitions,” he said
Naseeb said that they have also decided to introduce Kookaburra balls in the domestic tournament as part of domestic reforms while also increasing match fees to inspire cricketers.
Apart from that we have Introduced Kookaburra ball in first class cricket to bridge the gap with high quality teams from around the globe and reduce gaps as playing with the ball will certainly help them when they take the center stage at international level.
Naseeb
“The ACB has multiplied the match fee by three times from that of 2021,” he added.
To develop the cricketers ACB decided to have camps in different parts of Afghanistan while putting major emphasis on preparing good wickets in order to make sure that the next generation cricketers are developed to handle the pressure of international cricket.
“We had conditioning camps in Kunduz, Kabul and Nangarhar in different weather conditions while we are monitoring the fitness of the cricketers and changing their diet under the supervision of experts at HPC in Kabul,” he said.
“Infact, we put the players in isolation for 20 days to bring about those changes and develop awareness,” he said.
Image Credits: ACB photo
“A lot of work is done on improving the pitches so that players can adapt their game according to conditions,” he added.
Apart from developing the emerging cricketers ACB focused on giving them the right exposure in order to prepare for the big stage like they organized the Afghanistan A team’s tour to Oman last year while also having a full-fledged tour to Sri Lanka.
Along the way Afghanistan A team’s tour to Oman for practice matches and tri-nation series just before the Emerging Asia Cup in order to get used to the conditions paid dividends for them in the long run.
“Top performers who delivered in pressure situations in highly competitive Shpageeza league which featured all International players were picked for Afghanistan Abdalyan (Afghanistan A),” said the chief executive of ACB.
Naseeb said that he believes all the players that won the Emerging Asia Cup are the product of their domestic structure while he highly praised the local coaches for delivering on the big stage.
Remember, apart from Karim Janat, the rest of the players (of the Emerging Asia Cup) haven’t played much cricket for the national side. All players who won the Emerging Asia Cup are products of our domestic cricket and it speaks to the volume of strength and quality of our domestic cricket.
Naseeb
Our coaches showed their talent and deep understanding about the technical side against coaches from other sides despite they had extensive experience of working on global stage in various leagues and at international cricket,” he said
“It tells how far Afghanistan Cricket has come. And how proficient our coaches are and how good our domestic cricket is and it is on par with many big teams,” he said.
“Its matter of great pride for us to see our talent and coaches thriving on a big stage,” he said.
For the Afghans it is just the start of a new journey and they would be dreaming higher in the coming days as they now understood what it takes to be the champions. Only time can say whether they can put it on senior level but one thing is for sure they are now just not a force to reckon rather a country thriving to be at the top
Zaigum Azam, who is popularly known as Atif in the cricketing circle of Bangladesh and beyond, is a common face at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. The bearded man had been with cricket since his childhood after being sent to BKSP, country’s lone sports institute to learn the trade, from where leading cricketers of the present generation are groomed like Shakib al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mominul Haque, and Litton Kumar Das among others.