Afghan Cricket League Offers Brief Relief from Political Turmoil

At a time when Afghanistan faces grave political crisis, the cricket league of the country has presented the citizens a much-needed distraction.

On the lines of India's popular premier league, Afghanistan's National Cricket Board launched its biggest nationally televised domestic cricket tournament last year. Now in its second year, the Afghan cricket league is trying its best to fulfil the purpose of entertaining the Afghans, otherwise troubled by the uncertainty of the country's future. The tournament is also aimed at recruiting young players to the national cricket team, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The tournament - known as Sixers league - ended Monday; and included five teams from all over Afghanistan.

As the CricketWorld puts it, this is nothing less than a "fantasy tale".  "The concoction in which the seeds of Afghan cricket were first sown almost touches the edges of a fantasy tale, a David-Goliath struggle that a decade ago was not real enough even for dreams," CricketWorld reports.

Not only have they accomplished a distant dream, but the Afghanistan national team is to take part in its first 50-over World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, six months from now. This achievement already calls for celebration; the Afghans proved that will power can overcome any catastrophe.

But dampening the mood, latest reports revealed that Afghanistan's long-serving coach, former Pakistan test bowler Kabir Khan, has resigned.

"The job requires a lot of travelling and this has affected my family life a lot and I now have to give them proper time," Kabir told Reuters.  

Meanwhile, on the political front the crisis only appears to have deepened. The country is going through a troubled political transition.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the campaign team of former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah - who is contesting against Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai in the Presidential race - has issued a 24-hour notice to the United Nations and international observers stating that they will back out from the election process if the ongoing audit processes (of all 8 million votes cast in the second round of the election) are not changed.

"We will give one day to the international community to review and assure that the vote auditing and the political negotiations are moving forward properly. ... If our demands are not met and the auditing not conducted legitimately and the political talks without honesty, then we will withdraw from both processes," said team spokesman Syed Fazel Sancharaki.