As Afghanistan batsmen were hitting big shots during their practice session at the TU Cricket Ground on Tuesday morning, their coach Dawlat Ahmadzai said they are in Kathmandu to defend the ACC Twenty20 title.
“We are the champions and we´ll defend the title,” said a confident Ahmadzai.
Even though Nepal is hosting the ACC Twenty20 in Kathmandu from December 3 to 11, Afghanistan is the pre-tournament favorite.
Nepal and Afghanistan were at the same level till only three years ago. Both teams had competed in the ICC World Cricket League Division-5 in 2008. However, Afghanistan progressed after defeating Nepal by 37 runs in the semifinal of the tournament in Jersey.
Afghanistan now has One-Day status in world cricket but Nepal is still fighting in Division-4.
“Nepal team is good among the associate nations of ICC (International Cricket Council). I don´t know how they lagged behind. They should have been either in Division 2 or 1,” said Ahmadzai.
However, Ahmadzai knows well how Afghanistan leaped forward, gained One-Day status and played the Twenty20 World Cup. “We have team unity as these boys are playing together for almost a decade and they go for win every time,” said Ahmadzai.
Afghanistan team manager Shafiq Asmat Stanikjai clarified how Afghanistan achieved success in cricket. “We have good support from the government, we have a very good sponsorship deal with Etisalat, leading telecom in Afghanistan, and we are receiving grants from ICC,” said Stanikjai. “Credit goes to the boys. They wanted to win every single game. They also saw a bright future in cricket,” he added.
Binod Das, senior bowler and former captain of Nepali national team, said that Nepali team was stagnant by 2008 while Afghanistan was improving. “We had the same standard but they got one after another chance to play tough and better teams to gain confidence,” said Das.
Das also blamed the domestic format for Nepal´s failure. “They got opportunity to play good tournaments continuously but we lacked competitive matches,” said Das.
Nepal team coach Pubudu Dassanayake opined that lack of match exposure is a major problem for the associate nations. “Associate nations are not in the position to develop players on their own,” said Dassanayake. “So far as I know, Afghan players are playing elsewhere in places like Pakistan. Canada is playing domestic cricket in West Indies and Irish and Scottish players play in England. Sri Lanka used to play in Tamil Nadu in its earlier days in cricket. We also need similar support from neighbors like India,” he added.
Meanwhile, Nepali captain Paras Khadka expressed his determination to make Nepal catch up with Afghanistan. “They got important win in the right time during the Division-5 tournament in 2008. They were lucky in the tournament as they progressed despite losing a match in the group stage. But they improved after that tournament,” said Khadka.
“However, we have the capability to reach Division-2 or 1. We are still not that far from Afghanistan,” he added.
Khadka´s confidence is not baseless, as Afghanistan still looks at Nepal as the toughest opponent. “We take Nepal as a tough opponent in the tournament. They are really a good team,” said Afghanistan manager Stanikjai.
Afghanistan takes ACC T20 as practice tournament
Afghanistan coach Dawlat Ahmadzai said that his team is taking the ACC Twenty20 as a good practice tournament for the upcoming ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers to be held in the UAE in March 2012.
Afghanistan has already booked its berth in the qualifiers as a team of Division-1 and One-Day status.
“We are preparing for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifiers, the ACC Twenty20 would be a good practice tournament for us,” said Ahmadzai. However, he said that they are confident about defending the ACC Twenty20 title.
“We are well prepared for the tournament but the UAE, Nepal and Malaysia could be tough opponents,” said Ahmadzai.
Afghanistan and other top three teams of the ACC Twenty20 will secure berths in the qualifiers.
´Pitch ready´
Curator of the TU Cricket Ground, Ajay Pandey, said that four pitches are ready for the ACC Twenty20 Cup.
The TU Ground will host the opener as well as the semifinal and final matches of the tournament.
“I´ve prepared center wicket for the final and opening matches,” said Pandey. “I´ve tried to provide flat wicket as the beauty of T20 tournament lies in the runs scored,” he added.
The TU Ground is considered as a low-scoring and spin-friendly wicket but Pandey is hopeful that teams will be able to score runs this time around.
“Run-scoring depends on the batting. A team can chase around 160 runs on this ground,” said Pandey.
According to Pandey, the center wicket has a bit more grass and can help fast bowlers. “As we are preparing center wicket for the final, we should leave the grass for maintaining moisture,” said Pandey.
(With inputs from Anil Ghimire; as published in Republica)