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It’s a Very Big News for Us, Says Coach

Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan, feeling a wave of gratitude come over, immediately translated the announcement to Pashto for the benefit of the Afghan fans who had turned up in huge numbers to witness the second one-dayer between Afghanistan and Canada.

The team and the coach thanked Bukhatir for taking this generous step. “It’s a very big news for us because we always were looking for a home ground. We’re searching for it and it’s too expensive nowadays if you go to Pakistan, India or Sri Lanka and have camps there. We cannot afford it. So a venue like Sharjah, a world famous ground and obviously with all the facilities here like the gym, academy, we could not have asked for anything more.”

“Mr Bukhatir has been very very helpful. The whole nation is thankful to him and obviously I hope this will really work well for Afghanistan in the future,” Khan added.

“The thing is, we did not know about it earlier. It wasn’t planned, to be honest, and he just announced it. We have to work accordingly and now we have to make a programme and start looking for visas to settle now. For this, we need permanent visas for at least 18 to 20 players for a year or two, since we have to come here regularly,” Khan said when asked if he had been aware of the move earlier.

“The nation is happy, our minister, deputy chairman all are happy. They all have personally thanked Bukhatir. This is what you call help and that is the help we were expecting from Pakistan, India or sri Lanka but it came from here and we are happy for that.”

Afghanistan qualified to the World Twenty20 recently after emerging winners in the Twenty20 World qualifiers. “The focus is right now for the World Cup (right now, the focus is on the world cup). We’ve got a very busy schedule. There will be celebrations back home. It’s a huge thing for the country having qualified for the World Cup.

Khan noted that the players were focussed and raring to perform in the big event. “It is a big event. In fact, it’s a learning process for us. We can’t expect too much from our boys. What they have done so far itself is a great achievement.

“The best thing will be to go there and give them some good games. But the main purpose will be learning from the big teams. Luckily, we are in the same group as South Africa and India — some of the best teams in the world. They are the worlds best teams. Whether we win or lose I think we still will be the winners.”

“For now, whatever they (our boys) have achieved in the last 18 months has been dream journey. We look forward to playing the World Cup and we don’t want to just go there and lose. We will prepare well. We want to fight.”

But Khan felt that they had too little time to prepare for the World Cup. “Time is not on our side. There is too much to do in very little time. We have been playing in different formats all along — a four-day game followed by ODI and now back to a four-day game — a pace that is difficult to get used to. Even the big teams find it difficult to adjust with such pace.”

Afghanistan have a hectic schedule and the former Pakistan player felt that it was good for the boys. “In March, we have the ICC trophy in Kuwait following a 10-day camp. Then, we go to Florida for the World Cup camp. And then, to the Carribean. From there, we travel to Holland to play the six nations, then to Scotland and Kenya. So, it’s a busy year for us. Obviously we need such cricket since our boys don’t have any domestic cricket to participate in. We are quite happy with it.”