Afghanistan’s cricket miracle – from refugee camps to world cup semi-final, but marred by gender apartheid

Claims that the USA’s victory against Pakistan in the T20 men’s cricket world cup was the most unexpected sporting moment of 2024 might now be considered premature, now that Afghanistan has won through to the semi-final, leaving teams such as Australia in their wake.

When the tournament began on June 1, most observers would have considered a semi-final line-up not featuring Australia as highly unlikely. That the 2021 champions were pipped to the post by Afghanistan would have been considered almost inconceivable. Even now, the idea that these cricketing minnows might go further and make it to the final is nigh on unthinkable.

But over the years, Afghanistan’s men have bagged victories against England, Pakistan, West Indies and Sri Lanka. Some of its players are becoming big names within T20 franchise leagues around the world.

Attacking all-rounder Mohammed Nabi for example, was the first Afghan cricketer purchased in the Indian premier league (IPL) player auction, while Mujeeb Ur Rahman is another short-format specialist and that most marketable of cricketing assets – a “mystery spinner”.

And in the ever-youthful T20 captain, Rashid Khan, they have what former English captain Michael Vaughan describes as “the best spinner in the world”.

But perhaps this team – coached by former England batsman Jonathan Trott – is generally greater than the sum of its parts, and the narrow victory over Bangladesh in the concluding stage of the world cup’s “Super 8s” on Tuesday is unquestionably the finest moment in the comparatively short history of Afghan cricket.

And almost as unexpected as the progression of the team itself was a video call of congratulation from a member of the ruling Taliban government.

As one journalist noted: “This unexpected exchange underscored a rare moment of shared pride, blending sport with diplomacy amid complex political dynamics.”

Thereby hangs a tale for cricket in Afghanistan. Anything they have achieved has been done so against a hugely problematic cultural and political landscape. Indeed, journalist Bilal Sarwary described the victory against Bangladesh as less of match and more “a testament to Afghan resilience”.

Against all odds

The game only gained any real momentum at all when it was brought back home from cricket-mad Pakistan by Afghans who had been forced to flee the Soviet invasion in the 1980s. But one oppressive regime was quickly replaced by another, as the Taliban strangled the nation’s cultural progress. For Afghans, their cricket – as one journalist wrote as the team prepared to take on hosts England in the 2019 one-day world cup, “like their country, has been hardened by decades of war”.

And, while men’s cricket escaped the Taliban’s harsh cultural repression and formed its national team in 2001, women’s cricket was outlawed when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021.

But the repression extends far beyond the playing pitch; women cannot attend secondary schools and universities, cannot travel without male chaperones, and are banned from many public places. Even beauty salons have been closed by the Taliban; Afghan women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj noted that women “are being slowly erased from society, from life, from everything”.

As a consequence, many of the country’s former women’s players live in exile and Australia and England men’s teams, for example, have refused to play in any bilateral tournament against Afghanistan while the women’s ban remains in place.

But some would argue that the boycott is counterproductive, as it removes a rare source of collective pleasure from a beleaguered nation and its weary population. Sarah Fane OBE, an English doctor who has contributed significantly to the grassroots development of the game in Afghanistan suggests that “cricket has brought so much joy” for Afghans and has “given them heroes to cheer, happy news and a game they can all go and play”.

Indeed, Rashid Khan himself describes cricket as “the only source of happiness back home”. He argues that if the national team can play Australia in the world cup, then they should be able to play a bilateral series together.

But there is yet more angst. While the men’s team is often presented as a “unifying force” for a splintered nation, some argue that the reality is different, with team selection heavily favouring Pashtuns and discriminating against those with other ethnic origins.

In that sense, perhaps Rashid Khan and his team have a more comfortable time on the pitch than off it. Speaking out must be difficult – and he pragmatically suggests that as sportsmen he and his teammates “can only think about cricket”. Indeed, most neutrals who love the idea of a plucky underdog unseating cricket’s superpowers will hope his team have more such victories in them. But until its women cricketers can be as sanguine as Afghanistan’s men, the nation’s uplifting success will be at least partly overshadowed.

As one of the women’s team observed from her exile in Australia after the men qualified for the semi-final: “You made history. Be happy, celebrate. Now the world is yours,” adding ruefully that while many others had the “same talent, same goal, same ability”, they cannot play simply because they are women.

Richard Thomas has in the past receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council.