Afghanistan coach wants more BCCI support

Kabir Khan, the Afghanistan coach, has called for the BCCI to provide more support to Afghanistan cricket, highlighting England's support for their neighbouring Associate nations.

"If you look at England they go out of their way to support the associate cricket nations in their region, which include Holland, Ireland and Scotland," Kabir told PTI. "They allow their players to play in their county and league system, while giving them valuable assistance through various coaching programmes.

"In comparison, South Asia has four Test-playing nations - Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh - [yet despite this] we don't get the same kind of support, except for Pakistan. India has the influence and money to do a lot for Afghanistan cricket if they wanted. But so far we are still waiting.

"There's a lot of passion for cricket in Afghanistan, and there are good players, but we suffer mainly because we don't have a domestic cricket structure. We don't get enough matches in this region."

The Afghanistan team is currently in Lahore for a month-long conditional camp which also includes a series of matches against Pakistan A and several regional sides. The team trained at the National Cricket Academy in Lahore, where they were granted access to all facilities and coaches at hand.

Afghanistan will play Scotland next month to play in the ICC league series for a four-day match, two ODIs and a T20 in preparation of next year's World T20. Khan has already set his sights on the 2015 World Cup, which is to be jointly-held by Australia and New Zealand.

"Right now we are focusing on improving our fitness and fielding skills," Kabir said. "We want to play in the next ODI World Cup and make our presence felt."