Taliban’s return puts female athletes, organised sport under threat in Afghanistan-Sports News , Firstpost

Afghanistan cricket team’s tour of Sri Lanka to face Pakistan is under threat after Taliban swept to power. Afghanistan are due to play three ODIs at Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Hambantota starting 1 September. The series was earlier going to be played in UAE but has been moved to accommodate the Indian Premier League.

For Afghanistan cricket, and sport in general, these are challenging times with Taliban, who are against organised sport, taking control of the country once again. The Taliban government had ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001.

“Efforts are being made to check their whereabouts,” said an anonymous international cricket official about Afghanistan players as per news agency AFP.

“We are going there (Sri Lanka) and playing Pakistan for a series. Overall situation is great (in Afghanistan). It was like, two days was needed for regime change and at that time people were in fear, but now we have normal traffic for people and other official activity. Most probably, all offices will be open from tomorrow,” Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chief executive officer Hamid Shinwari told Indian Express.

Two star cricketers in Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi had earlier appealed for peace. Nabi had urged world leaders to help Afghanistan. Rashid is playing the Hundred in England while Nabi is in Dubai.

“As an Afghan, I bleed to see where my beloved country is today. Afghanistan descends into Chaos and there has been a substantial rise in calamity and tragedy and is currently in humanitarian crisis. Families are forced to leave their homes behind and head to Kabul with an unknown future, as their homes are being seized. I appeal to the leaders of the world; please don’t let Afghanistan go into chaos. We need your Support. We want Peace,” Nabi had tweeted.

Afghanistan earned official ODI status in 2009 and were Associate Members from 2013 to June 2017. Thereafter, they were promoted as a full member which enabled them to play official Test cricket.

The national cricket team was born in 2001 following the fall of Taliban. Rising from the years of violence, cricket has emerged as the most popular sport in the war-ravaged nation. The men’s team’s biggest honours have been in winning the ACC T20 Cup four times, the ICC World T20 Qualifier in 2010, Asian Games runners-up twice and in winning the 2018 ICC World Cup Qualifier.

For the women, it has been significantly difficult in comparison. The team was formed in 2010 but disbanded in 2014 without an official ICC match being played. In a bid to restart women’s cricket, the ACB handed out central contracts to 25 women in November 2020. They also ran a training camp in October to pick from an initial pool of 40 cricketers.

For men’s cricket, there are doubts over the series going ahead and the T20 World Cup in October. Shinwari, however, is optimistic there will not be any disruption to the team’s participation.

“Taliban loves cricket. They have supported us since the beginning. They did not interfere in our activities,” said Shinwari.

“It can be said that cricket flourished during the Taliban era. It is also a fact that many of our players practised in Peshawar and they made the sport mainstream in Afghanistan,” he said referring to cricket’s rise in the country with many playing and learning the sport in neighbouring Pakistan.

Former Afghanistan women’s football captain Khalida Popal. AFP File photo

Not everyone has reason to be optimistic. Khalida Popal, part of the first Afghanistan women’s football team, has been dealing with frantic phone calls and voice messages from back home.

“They are hiding away. Most of them left their houses to go to relatives and hide because their neighbours know they are players. They are sitting, they are afraid. The Taliban is all over. They are going around creating fear,” she told The Associated Press.

Popal, 34, now lives in Denmark having stopped playing in 2011. But she’s still part of the setup as director of the Afghanistan Football Association. Threats of physical and sexual abuse, death threats and rape forced her to seek asylum in Denmark in 2012. All she can do is advise her players to flee their homes.

Football federations officials also fear for the life for promoting women’s football.

“Taliban is in control of Kabul and the situation is very grim. The airport is still safe but the Taliban will soon block everything,” Dr Shaji Prabhakaran, president of Football Delhi, told Outlook India, while quoting the Afghan officials. He added the senior officials of the federation are seeking refuge in India.

Between 1984 and 2002, Afghanistan didn’t play a single international game. Under the Taliban rule, football stadiums were venues for executions instead of ball hitting the back of the net. Their first international tournament was the 2003 SAFF Gold Cup. In the last 20 years, Afghanistan men’s football team’s milestone moments have been fourth place at the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup; 2013 SAFF Championship winners and finalists in 2011 and 2015.

The men’s team were ranked 200th in December 2004 to 153rd now with best of 122nd. For the women, a team that was formed only in 2007, and played their first game in 2010, the exposure and results have been mixed. In 21 games, they’ve won four and lost 15. Women’s team are currently 152nd in the FIFA rankings, a significant drop from their best of 106.

Rohullah Nikpai is Afghanistan’s only Olympic medallist winning a bronze medal in 2008 and 2012. AFP File photo

The current situation in Afghanistan will steal a joyous moment from Zakia Khudadadi. She was destined to become the first woman to represent Afghanistan at a Paralympic Games in Tokyo. But with commercial flights not available, that dream has been shattered.

“Unfortunately due to the current upheaval going on in Afghanistan the team could not leave Kabul in time,” said Afghanistan Paralympic Committee’s London-based Chef de Mission Arian Sadiqi to Reuters.

Afghanistan first competed at the 1996 Paralympic Games but have never won a medal. Rohullah Nikpai became Afghanistan’s first Olympic medallist when he won a bronze medal in taekwondo at the 2008 Beijing Games, repeating the feat at London 2012.

“There was a lot of progress, both in the Olympics and the Paralympics,” Sadiqi said of recent decades. “At the national level there was a lot of participants, a lot of athletes… but we can only predict from what happened in the past.

“Previously during the Taliban era people couldn’t compete, couldn’t participate, especially female athletes.”

Khudadadi, 23, a taekwondo athlete, received a wildcard to compete at the Paralympics. She was profiled on the Paralympics website last week.

“For me, it’s heartbreaking,” Sadiqi said. “This would have been the first female Afghan taekwondo player to take part. This was history in the making. She was excited to take part. She was very passionate to compete.

“Zakia would have been a great role model for the rest of the females in the country.”