Afghanistan!

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
AFGHANISTAN!

COME ON AFGHANISTAN!
WE'RE THE BEST!
WE'RE THE FUTURE!

WATCH OUT ENGLAND - WE'LL BE UP ON YOUR TAIL NEXT!

PROGRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

AFGHANI-FUGGING-STAN BITCHES IN THE MUTHAFUGGING HOUSE!

We're the best, we're better than the rest, we only used to blow people up for the Taliban under duress.
Now we've found cricket you know we're gonna stick it and soon you'll be feeling the muthafugging heat!

Shafiqullah!
Khan!
Stanikzal!
Mangal!
Shehzad!
Nabi!
Ahmadzai!
Shenwari!
Gul!
Ahmadzai II!

Eleven heroes - hope for the future!

WE ARE AFGHANI-FUGGING-STAN gunning for all you bitches!

[This is Rachel]

I am ridiculously excited about their progress. Nabi's first shot in first-class cricket went for six, I believe. He's also a lovely young chap.

If they can make the World Cup proper, I don't see how they could fail to be everybody's second team.

They've been sort of my second team ever since I heard about them coming 'out of the mire' of Afghanistan. They've been over to do a bit of work with the MCC at Lord's and apparently have some decent quicks. It would be exciting to see them come through because their progress has been rapid from where they were and if they can keep that up then there's a hint of a decent side there. Out of the ashes...

Are they actually Afghanistani or more like a side like Canada or the USA were?

At least nine of the current side were born in Afghanistan - one of the others is a Pakistani important (Shehzad), and the last seems to be an Afghani whose birth is a bit of a mystery. So 10 out of 11.

Then that's brilliant.

holcs wrote:Are they actually Afghanistani or more like a side like Canada or the USA were?

I doubt whether people are voluntarily emigrating to Afghanistan these days, if ever.

http://content.cricinfo.com/other/content/player/25913.html

Mohammad Nabi - supposedly a prodigiously talented batsmen. As you can see his birth is spurious. The thing about it is that a lot of them were born in one of Pakistan or Afghanistan around the borders. That doesn't mean they're not Afghani. Just searching and I found a quick piece on Mohammad Nabi in one of the paper's online-majiggys:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/cricket/article6020523.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2

Probably Pakistani...

Those cheating Afghans.

Bunch of hounds.

I suppose as you say its spurious.

The point is with Canada and the US etc, they were all Indian, Pakistani or Windian.

I was just hoping that the players would actually have origins within the country itself.

Seems like even the unknown ones do.

Heard a couple of their pacers are nippy. Would like to see them have a dig. Read about them a couple of years back or so in Wisden, their story sounded excellent. Would certainly cheer them on against most.

So, Afghanistan suffer a humiliating loss to Kenya. What are we supposed to do to sort out the mess that is Afghani cricket? Frankly, this has been going on too long. Sticking with under-performing but talented players, the selectors have no idea. How are we going to win the east-Asian Ashes playing like this in the summer?

I think it's about time these over-paid (I hear some of the players are receiving a whole goat for their work in this tournament) prima donnas got their fingers out and started showing the world what they're capable of. Shape up or f*ck off.

[This is Rachel]

Augustus,

You don't want to go giving Afghan cricketers a goat - it'll only give them ideas about defecting to their national sport, Buzkashi

[Still Rachel]

ps. Pakistani Schmakistani. You think anyone knows what's going on in these border regions? The NorthWest Frontier has been bandit country repelling everyone from East to West for hundreds of years. All that article says is that he may have been born in Pakistan, but ended up in the Afghan refugee camps of Peshawar. Can't imagine that's too fun a place to be, so it seems unlikely that he would have travelled there special like, when he could be living in Pakistan proper (and playing his cricket there and for them - if he's that good, with monetary reward).

Eric Air Emu wrote:[This is Rachel]

Augustus,

You don't want to go giving Afghan cricketers a goat - it'll only give them ideas about defecting to their national sport, Buzkashi

Didn't know bukkake was a sport. And thought it was a Japanese pursuit...