The news from Afghanistan tends to be uniformly depressing and so I perked up when I read that Afghanistan has taken up the sport of cricket and currently has a national team playing against the Netherlands in Sharjah. It is true that neither team is an international powerhouse in the sport, but it is surely a welcome sign of a possible return to normalcy for a country to indulge in such a leisurely activity like cricket.
According to this Wikipedia article, cricket started becoming popular in 2000 with the return of Afghan refugees from cricket-mad Pakistan and was granted an exemption by the Taliban from its ban on all sports.
Why the Taliban would exempt cricket of all things baffles me. Surely if there is any sport that exemplifies decadent time wasting, it is cricket, and perhaps golf. Maybe because in cricket all the players wear long pants and long sleeved shirts and are generally covered up, which satisfies the Taliban’s bizarre obsession with modesty.
Are they required to sport beards?
S.
No. Here is a photo of the national team, almost all of them clean shaven.
Of course, that might change if the Taliban come back to power.
Thanks. I am a little disappointed. I was expecting men sporting beards and wearing flowing robes surrounded by groupies in burkhas (four to each player, ideally!)
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On a more serious note, I hope they have some success.
S.
” It is true that neither team is an international powerhouse in the sport”
Aaaahhhrrrrggghhhh, my chauvinistic feelings are deeply hurt.
Oh wait. Oranje only won two matches in four WCh-ships. But one of the two opponents was England.
So I’ll just wait until we beat the crap out of Sri Lanka and then I’ll toast on Mano Singham.
Only problem is that I don’t give s**t about cricket, so I am likely to forget all my nonsense within a few minutes.
I once watched a cricket match, live and in person, in Singapore. After 45 minutes, I knew even less about how it was played than I knew before I got there. D’ya think it might be mystical enough to deconvert some Talibaners?
The important part of a cricket match is the “tea interval”, when both teams stop playing so they and the spectators can consume immense amounts of beer. If you’re ever at a cricket match, wait until the tea interval, wander into the tent, get a pint, and say loudly: “This is the first time I’ve ever seen cricket. What does ‘lbw’ mean?”
leg before wicket
Well for the spectators there is no need to wait for the tea interval to consume beer. The beer consumption can start pretty much as soon as you arrive at the ground. The intervals are just a good opportunity to take on board some food to soak up the alcohol.
There is actually a cricket league in Houston. I’ve been to a match, Jamaicans vs. Pakistanis. My friend tried to explain what was happening but between the beer and the presence of his extended family he was unable to do so except in Jamaican Patois. Bumbaclat! Is that too profane a word to use here? I’m more worried about the inherent sexism of using such a word. I assure everyone here that I am a “red wings” kinda guy, not squeamish in any way.
Every time I try to understand Cricket I’m knocked for six. But at least I understand knocking for six. Balls hit where they can’t be fielded are counted as six runs.
A friend in Yorkshire assures me that “base ball” as they call it in Hull is quite popular in the UK. It’s mostly confined to unstructured games among children similar to US stickball, and a game for teenage girls similar to softball. But sexism drives the boys away from “base ball” toward Cricket as the boys get older as it’s perceived as alternative cricket for girls.
Not quite. Six runs are scored when the ball is hit over the boundary with touching the ground after leaving the bat. When the ball bounces before crossing the boundary then four runs are scored.
No religion, no matter how powerful, would be wise to mess with a nationally popular sport. Have you seen what sports fans can do, and how easily they are riled up?