Cricket 2021: Inaugural Test with Afghanistan under a cloud as top spinner bleeds for his homeland

Australia is planning to start its home summer with its first-ever Test against Afghanistan from November 27. The incredible events of the last few days have thrown that very much into doubt.

Days after superstar Rashid Khan pleaded for world leaders to save his country, the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has rumbled all the way to the doorstep of Australian cricket.

Afghan cricketers around the globe are in a state of numb disbelief at the anarchy which has swept their families into the streets and a government from power.

A Tweet posted by Rashid last week laid bare of a mood of desperation and forlorn hope.

“Dear world leaders,’’ Rashid wrote.

“My country is in chaos, thousands of innocent people, including children and women, get martyred every day, houses and properties being destructed.

“Don’t leave us in chaos. Stop killing Afghans and destroying Afghanistan.’’

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Rashid Khan fears for his homeland now that the Taliban has reclaimed Afghanistan. Picture: Getty Images

But the plea went unanswered with the United States remaining committed to their withdrawal from the war-torn nation.

Rashid, the world’s No. 1 T20 bowler, has only been home for 25 days in five years yet remains deeply connected to his roots.

He is the sixth of 10 siblings, most of whom still live in Afghanistan, and his only previous experience of Taliban rule came when he was barely old enough to remember.

Like thousands of others, Rashid learnt his cricket as a refugee in the Pakistan city of Peshawar after his family dashed across the Afghan border when the United States declared war with the Taliban after the September 11 attacks.

Australia is planning to start its home summer with its first-ever Test against Afghanistan in Hobart from November 27.

Knowing they have far bigger things to worry about than a cricket match, Cricket Australia officials will keep a respectful distance before discussing the landscape with their Afghanistan counterparts.

American gunships were sometimes above when the Afghanistan team was training in Kabul. Picture: AFP

“Our thoughts are with the people of Afghanistan, our friends at the Afghanistan Cricket Board and the Afghanistan team during these challenging times,’’ said a CA spokesperson, adding the Test was expected to proceed as planned.

But nothing is certain.

Rashid wrote his Tweet from England where he is playing for the Trent Rockets in The Hundred.

Rashid and his national team have been lauded as cricket’s most enchanting story of the century but the romance of the tale is in danger of being brutally truncated.

No-one really knows what comes next. During its last rule, the Taliban initially banned cricket because it stopped men from praying.

Rashid Khan celebrates a wicket with the Adelaide Strikers during last season’s Big Bash League. Picture: Getty Images

But its troops started to play it — sometimes in the snow outside Kabul — and regularly listened to radio coverage of the Afghanistan team.

Their increased affection for the game allowed it to cautiously continue.

It then blossomed after the US invasion and there would occasionally be American gunships above when the Afghanistan team was training in Kabul.

While foreign coaches feared being attacked, they were told by locals “the Taliban will not threaten you’’.

But the latest unrest creates massive problems for Afghanistan’s home-based cricketers.

Some travel up to six hours to Kabul for training and the magnitude of that journey will be increased with the country’s road system now heaving with congestion.

Then there are so many logistical issues. Who will pick the team? Who will pay them? Who will organise domestic competitions?

Even when things were under government rule nothing was easy in Afghanistan.

Now, with the nation ravaged by chaos, there are challenges galore.

Originally published as Cricket 2021: Inaugural Test with Afghanistan under a cloud as top spinner bleeds for his homeland