Afghanistan’s first ever T20 World Cup semi-final extra special after astounding challenges faced
With no guarantee on visas, no music to be played and the boycotting of the nation, Afghanistan reveal the extent of their challenges faced to make it to the T20 World Cup.
Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott has taken a thinly veiled swipe at South Africa’s “scarring” in World Cup semi-finals, as the full extent of the obstacles his players have been forced to overcome this tournament was laid bare.
It can be revealed the new pin up boys of cricket were effectively blocked from gaining entry to the USA for this World Cup and is one of the reasons why the International Cricket Council was unable to schedule any Super 8s or semi-final matches in America for this tournament.
Organisers could not guarantee they’d be able to get Afghanistan players Visas to enter the US and as a result, fixtures for the tournament jointly hosted by the West Indies and USA had to be carefully planned – with Afghanistan put into a group where they could play all their matches exclusively across the Caribbean.
Most teams flew into the West Indian countries via the US, but Afghanistan had to take a different route through Europe.
It is just another extraordinary example of the challenges Afghanistan’s players must endure on a daily basis as the world refuses to acknowledge the ruling Taliban government over human rights concerns.
Afghanistan’s players can be seen visibly in tears when their national anthem is played and their national flag unfurled before these World Cup matches.
This is because the music is banned by the Taliban and the anthem being played and the flag being used is actually from the pre-Taliban takeover in 2021.
It’s been reported that the Taliban requested that the World Cup play its national anthem without music, but that has not happened.
Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan spoke emotionally after his team’s upset win over Australia about the hurt being caused to his desperate people by countries like Australia boycotting playing the embattled nation outside of World Cups.
There would have been a major temptation for World Cup organisers to schedule some big knockout matches in the USA to leverage the inroads made there in the early part of the tournament, but it was going to be hard to manage Afghanistan’s entry into the country if they fell on that side of the draw.
And despite the shock of their dismantling of Australia, this was always on the cards – with cricket greats Brian Lara and Mark Waugh among those to predict Afghanistan could rocket into the semi-finals of this tournament.
They were right.
Trott, a South African-born former Ashes nemesis of Australia, believes that despite the politics that engulfs their cricket, Afghanistan enters their first ever World Cup semi-final not bearing the burden that the cursed countrymen of his birthplace will bring with them to Trinidad.
“I also think, we go into the semi-final with no scarring or no history with regards to semi-finals,” Trott said.
“This is uncharted territory for us. We’re just going to go out there and give it our all.
“There’s no preconceived ideas on it all, or history of failure or success in semi-finals in past years.
“For us it’s a new challenge and I think that makes us dangerous in the semi-finals as a side with nothing to lose and obviously a lot of pressure on the opposition.”
South Africa has never won a World Cup title, but have suffered numerous agonising semi-final defeats, most recently last year to Australia.
Afghanistan’s advancement saved the Proteas from facing Australia again in an ICC knockout, but Rashid’s underdogs received a massive boost on Tuesday with Trott and batsman Gulbadin Naib so far escaping sanction for deliberately faking injury and trying to slow down their last-start clutch win over Bangladesh.
TV cameras showed Trott gesticulating from the sidelines for Afghanistan players to slow down because they had edged ahead of the run-rate ahead of another looming rain delay against Bangladesh.
Naib responded to the instruction by suddenly collapsing to the ground writhing in pain at first slip as if he’d been shot by a sniper.
The act of cheating was condemned by captain Rashid and the TV commentators, but Naib was making light of the incident on social media as he posed for a photo with the Afghanistan physio who he credited for his “miracle” recovery to get him back bowling an over after play resumed.
Australian captain Mitchell Marsh described the incident as “one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on a cricket field,” he said.
“I was almost in tears laughing.”
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