Afghanistan’s Najeeb Tarakai passes away after car accident

Afghanistan cricketer Najeeb Tarakai lost his battle with life and passed away on Tuesday, October 6 after reportedly, suffering a car accident. The 29-year-old Tarakai was admitted to the hospital and he was said to have gone into coma. The development was brought forth by M.Ibrahim Momand, the ex-media manager of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB).

The former manager, on Saturday, October 3, informed that Najeeb didn’t move for the last 22 hours after the fatal head injury. Tarakai met with the accident in Jalalabad city and he was kept under the surveillance of the hospital medical staff.

“It’s has been 22 hours now since a deadly accident but national cricketer  @Najibtaraki78 is unmoved & still in coma despite head injury. He reportedly hit by a car in Jalalabad city. fans asking @ACBofficials to facilitate shifting him to Kabul or neighbor countries hospitals,” the former media manager’s tweet read.

ACB mourns Najeeb Tarakai’s demise

In the meantime, the ACB was saddened after Tarakai left mother earth. The cricket board dropped a tweet, expressing grief for the massive loss.

“ACB and Afghanistan Cricket Loving Nation mourns the heart breaking & grievous loss of its aggressive opening batsman & a very fine human being Najeeb Tarakai (29) who lost his life to tragic traffic accident leaving us all shocked! May Allah Shower His Mercy on him,” ACB’s tweet read.

Tarakai had played quite a bit of international cricket for Afghanistan. He made his debut back in 2014 against Bangladesh in a T20I during the T20 World Cup. From there on, he played 12 T20Is in which he scored 258 runs at an average and strike-rate of 21.50 and 122.85 respectively.

He also had a top score of 90 to his name that he got against Ireland in March 2017 at Greater Noida. Najeeb last played international cricket on September 2019 against Bangladesh at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur. The game happened to be in a T20I tri-series also involving Zimbabwe.

Tarakai also represented his country in a solitary ODI against Ireland back in 2017. He last played competitive cricket in the previous Shpageeza Cricket League where he turned out for the MIS Ainak Knights. In his career, Tarakai scored 3,283 runs with seven tons and 16 half-centuries.