How Afghanistan climbed from refugee-camp cricket to Test status in sixteen years
Afghanistan's cricketers first learned the game as refugees in Pakistan during the 1980s and 1990s, practising on Peshawar's grounds. Their board joined the ICC's lowest tier in 2001, and by June 2017, after a remarkable run through the minor leagues, the country had been granted full membership and the right to play Tests.
Afghans had known the game since the mid-1800s, but the modern team grew out of exile. Most early players came up through Pakistan's domestic system with help from its cricket board, and the Afghan federation itself was founded in 1995. Their first taste of organised competition came in Pakistan's second-tier Quaid-e-Azam Trophy in 2001–02, where they drew two and lost three.
Results soon improved. In 2006 they thrashed an MCC side including former England captain Mike Gatting, out for a duck, by 171 runs in Mumbai, then won six of seven games on a tour of England. A shared ACC Twenty20 Cup with Oman in 2007 was their first trophy. From there they climbed the World Cricket League almost rung by rung, winning Division Five in Jersey, Division Four in Tanzania, and Division Three in Buenos Aires in January 2009, on net run rate.
Missing the 2011 World Cup still earned four years of one-day international status, and their first ODI, against Scotland, ended in an 89-run victory. On his first-class debut, against a Zimbabwe XI in Mutare, Noor Ali scored a century in each innings, only the fourth player ever to manage that. In 2010 they beat Ireland to win the World Twenty20 qualifier and reach the main event in the West Indies.
Bigger opponents followed. In February 2012 they met Pakistan at Sharjah, the first ODI between an affiliate and a Test nation, and lost by seven wickets. A 2014 tour of Zimbabwe, their first full series against a full member, ended level in both formats, and a win over Zimbabwe on Christmas Day 2015 lifted them into the top ten of the ODI rankings. Test status arrived alongside Ireland's, making twelve Test nations.
Source: Afghanistan national cricket team
