Afghanistan to prove mettle in World Cup: Stanikzai

KABUL Cup in England, hopes a senior board official.

“Afghanistan was the second best team in the recent Asia Cup. We dominated all the other sides and yet we did not reach the final,” the Afghanistan Cricket Board’s chief executive said.

In interview published in Gulf News on Monday, Shafiq Stanikzai predicted Afghanistan could be among the favourites for the World Cup to be played in England next year.

Cricket in all forms was headed in the right direction in his country, the ACB chief claimed, insisting that his side had already showcased its strength in T20 cricket and ODIs.

“Now, we need to invest some time and energy in Test cricket and raise our level there as well …We need more investment in the longer version of the game.

“We played a Test match against India and that was a good learning curve for us. No doubt, we were defeated heavily, but we are taking a lot of positives out of that result.”

Afghanistan played their maiden Test match in Bengaluru in mid-June when the hosts pulled off a massive win by an innings and 262 runs in less than two days.

In an attempt to help the national team get exposure and experience, the ACB plans matches against Zimbabwe, West Indies, Australia and possibly England.

“We have been charting our course in the world of international cricket. You can be sure that Afghanistan will be a force to reckon with in the next three to four years in all formats of the game,” Stanikzai remarked.

The ongoing APL is part of the plan to facilitate Afghanistan’s journey towards the big stage in 2019 when the ICC Cricket World Cup would played in England.

He said the main objective behind APL was to provide Afghan cricketers with an ideal platform for displaying their talent on the global stage.

Concurrently, Stanikzai added, the players would also get financial stability while rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s renowned cricketers.

PAN Monitor/mud

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