Afghanistan coach appeals for assistance

In an exclusive interview with Wisden CricInfo this week, Taj Malik, vice-president and national coach of the Afghanistan Cricket Federation (ACF), made a fervent appeal for help in developing cricket in his country.

Speaking on a crackling telephone line from Afghanistan, Malik said: "My main job as national coach is to produce young talent for youth tournaments. We hope to participate in the Asian Cricket Council's 2003 Youth Asia Cup in July and on their under-17 Asia Cup later this year, along with other youth tournaments."

When asked on the present state of cricket in Afghanistan, his immediate response was discouraging: "We are grateful to those who have helped so far, but we haven't got any facilities for cricket. We don't have a permanent ground and we have very little equipment, only some left-handed batting gloves, one set of wicket-keeping stuff and one new ball."

But one plus point for the ACF is the newly-formed Pir Baba Cricket Academy which uses any open spaces available to play, and from which six players are already playing for the national team.

"Our immediate requirement is for more cricket academies to be setup in different parts of Afghanistan such as Logar, Khost, Kabul and Jalalabad so that our young boys turn to cricket from war. Then we can produce talented cricketers from the under-19 to under-14 age groups."

Imran Khan gives useful advice to Taj Malik Photo © ACF

"I met Imran Khan at his home in Lahore this year during our Pakistan tour and he told me that first you should make a domestic structure and academies to find young players. Also you must prepare turf pitches not concrete because on concrete the ball comes straight on while on turf the ball moves. He also promised that he would help train Afghan fast bowlers and help in collecting funds to make a ground in Afghanistan. Imran is our hero here and everyone wants to be like him."

A question about any plans for future tours revealed the ACF's programme to visit India to play 10 matches in August, and in October they travel to UAE during their national cricket season. "In November we are hopeful ACC will allow our under-17s to participate in the Asia Cup. We will again visit Pakistan to participate in the Grade II tournament like we have twice before."

As the phone beeps to signal the end of our telephone conversation, I managed one last question: so how can foreign donors or cricketing bodies, the various boards and cricket teams of the world help?

After a moments thought, Malik had this to say, "We are proud, but shy people with little knowledge of the rest of the world and it is very difficult for me to beg or ask for donations because we cannot repay except by playing better cricket." He added: "What we need is any kind of help from used or new cricket equipment, clothing and economical aid for the academies."

Living in an enriched cricket environment, one could only feel for this man and his plight after being forced to answer that question. Here we have a very keen person who is trying to foster cricket in an isolated country torn apart through the ages with conflict.

There is only one simple answer, cricket growth is Afghanistan will do a lot of good for that country and they need all the help they can get, and Malik hopes that the cricketing world will come down the wicket and help drive their ball forward.

Ed: The Afghan coach may be contacted here Taj Malik or via the website