Afghanistan fans have a clear message for the terrorists

The enthusiasm of Afghanistan players and spectators cannot be diminished as shown after the suicide attack outside Kabul’s main cricket stadium this week. It may have underlined the daily security risks Afghanistan is facing but the country’s premier T20 tournament is carrying on.

In a country seeking a break from the violence and oppression, the few big sporting competitions in the country offer a refuge to them. The Shpageeza Cricket League, now in its fifth edition, is one of them, alongside Afghan Premier League.

“Over the past few days we’ve seen thousands of fans waiting for hours to get into the stadium and watch the matches,” said Atif Mashal, chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB). “Cricket has brought joy to people and it has message of peace, unity and love,” he added.

Clear message

The crowd has shown immense love for the game and their team showed that they won’t back down. Despite being subjected to violence that has become a part and parcel of their life, the crowd preferred to distract themselves by a mix of big hitting and blasts of Pashto pop songs.

“We have a clear message to terrorists,” said Noor Aziz, a fan watching the match between the Kabul Eagles and the Spinghar Tigers. “We’re not going to give up, however many explosions you put against us.”

The Shpageeza (“Sixer”) league has six teams, roughly representing different areas of the country and boosted by more than 20 foreign players from countries including South Africa, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.

Can’t keep them away from Afghan cricket

Following the blast on Wednesday, the South African cricket board asked its players to return. And so did the  Zimbabwe board. South African batsman Cameron Delport, the first centurion of the tournament was in the match that was being played when the bomber struck, hopes to return. He emphasized that he was impressed by the standard of Afghan cricket, a sport especially popular among the Pashtun ethnic community.

“Obviously with the incident which happened (on Wednesday), it was a downer in the changing room,” he said. “But the ACB put good measures in place, good security. They caught him (the bomber) before he could do what he did inside the stadium, which was really good and all the players are happy about that. I would definitely come back in the future,” Cameron stated.