Khaleqdad Noori was included in the 14 member squad, but he stayed back in Kabul because of his commitments with the Afghan Youth Association cricket team which will participate in the Floodlight T20 Cricket Tournament in Karachi, Pakistan. Paceman Izatullah Dawlatzai was called in as replacement for Khaleqdad, but then he has to stay back as he couldn't get his UK Visa on time. Izatullah had changed his name to Ezat Sohail and the UK authorities had his fingerprints which resulted in a Visa rejection. The rest of the squad remains the same, consisting of Nawrooz Mangal (Captain), Mohammad Nabi Isakheil, Mirwais Ashraf, Karim Khan Sadiq (Vice Captain), Mohammad Shahzad, Hamid Hassan, Samiullah Shinwari, Noor Ali Zadran, Asghar Stankzai, Shahpoor Zadran, Abdullah Mazari, Aftab Alam, Noorulhaq Malikzai, and Mohamamd Javed Ahmadi.
Coach: Kabir Khan, Rashid Latif, Team manger: Sayed Nazim Jaar, doctor Azim Malik, and video analyst Daud Babar.
The 20 players; 15 in the main squad including Khaleqdad and 5 reserve members, have participated in a training camp in Jalalabad,Kabul where Rashid Latif also joined them for the first time.
We have updated our photos, to the gallery with photos of their training session at Nangarhar Cricket Academy run by former national coach Taj Malik and his brother ACB technical manger Hasti Gul Abed.
"Afghanistan can be divided into four zones and each zone should have Under-15, Under-16 and Under-19 teams and also a senior team. Then we can make tournaments between the zones and also within the zones themselves. If this is done, we can create strong junior teams and the future of Afghanistan cricket will be bright. We can also spread cricket in this way and start building grounds as well."Over the weekend Afghanistan Cricket Board also announced that they have appointed Dawlat Ahmadzai, former fast bowler of the national team as their new domestic development manager. Ahmadzai's role will be to help develop cricket in Afghanistan. Ahmadzai has already been very active with AYCSO (Afghan Youth Cricket Support Organization), an organization currently promoting cricket among the Afghan youth. AYCSO was founded by another former national team member, Raees Ahmadzai. During a recent interview for the ACC (Asian Cricket Council) website, Ahmadzai laid out his views on how to develop cricket in Afghanistan.
"We need a financial policy, a marketing policy and a development policy. There is USAID who can spend US$100 million on developing sport in Afghanistan. The Governor of Loghar is very well known to me and my family has land almost as big as Barbados in Afghanistan some of which we can use for cricket. Every child and parent is now pro-cricket."
"I’ve played international cricket against teams like India, travelled the world playing for Afghanistan so I am very happy. Now I would like to see Afghanistan do well as an ODI nation"
