As the world celebrates Afghanistan’s incredible run at the T20 World Cup 2024 and their sensational qualification to the semifinals for the first time ever, it’s time to remember the efforts put in by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in the journey of the Afghans’ success.
The world’s richest, powerful and most influential cricket board has been steadfast in its support of the Afghanistan cricket team by offering its facilities since way back in 2015.
For a team that attained ICC full-member status in 2017, to elevate their game and competitiveness to such an extent that they consign the likes of New Zealand and Australia to defeats and storm into a World Cup semifinal is truly an awe-inspiring moment.
BCCI's Pivotal
The BCCI had sown the seeds of Afghanistan’s journey by allowing them to use Greater Noida as its base in 2015 with the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Ground becoming their ‘home ground’.
The Afghans played an international series against Ireland on that very ground after shifting their base from Sharjah to Noida, thanks to the large-heartedness of the BCCI.
Noida has not been the only ground where Afghanistan have hosted international series. They played Bangladesh in an international series in Dehradun and also Ireland again in 2019.
Expertise & Mentorship
What the BCCI did was provide them with the requisite platform and infrastructure to excel at the world level but the cricketing acumen and knowhow which they received from former Indian players who coached them has been invaluable.
Be it Lalchand Rajput, Manoj Prabhakar or even Ajay Jadeja, who was with them as recently as the 2013 ODI World Cup held in India.
Jadeja had invited the batting legend Sachin Tendulkar to the Wankhede Stadium on the eve of their World Cup match against Australia and surely those moments with the maestro would have certainly helped the Afghans pick up a thing or two about excelling at the highest level.
Jadeja had even refused to take any remuneration as per the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chairman’s own admission for his services rendered.
Impact of IPL
Need we say more about what the Indian Premier League (IPL), again a BCCI initiative, has done to the lives of the Afghanistan players and not just their cricketing ability.
With a bunch of Afghanistan players playing their trade in the world’s richest and most sought-after cricket league, it has done a world of good to their confidence, ability and skillsets mingling with the best of the best in international cricket.
The Afghan players and fans would be dancing away to peppy numbers after their epic semifinal qualification but they would surely remember the contribution of BCCI and India in their development as a cricketing nation on the rise.
