BCCI sets aside One Million dollars to foster cricket in Afghanistan

The future of the Afghan cricket looks bright as they are going to get two new cricket stadiums in their own backyard. Afghanistan began their cricketing journey way back in 1995 but they only came into the limelight at the 2010 ICC T20 World Cup in West Indies. Since then, they have made their presence felt in all the ICC events. Last year, their good performances at the International level earned them a Test and ICC full membership status.

Now the former associates are scheduled to play their maiden test match against India later this year. Lately, they also went ahead of Zimbabwe and moved to eighth place in the ICC T20I rankings. But sadly for Afghanistan, they are unable to play their games at home due to lack of cricketing facilities. Due to that fact, they have only staged their home games at the neutral venues. The security reasons also act as a barrier to host a game in the country.

Recently in order to support the Afghan cricket, the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI) offered the newly built Ekana International Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. Currently, this cricket stadium functions as the home ground to the Afghanistan cricket team.

The Tri-Lateral Agreement

A Few days after donating their stadium, The Indian Embassy on February 7, 2018 (Wednesday) signed a tri-lateral agreement with the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and the Afghan Government to develop the cricketing facilities in the war trodden nation. This treaty will provide them two cricket venues in their own backyard.

As per the official ACB press release, the Indian Government will fund $1 million for enhancing the cricket facilities in three provinces of the country namely Balkh, Kandahar and Logar provinces.

In accordance with the deal, $1.765 Million will be allocated for the construction of cricket stadium in Balkh and 400000 US Dollars for constructing another stadium in Logar provinces. Further, the report stated that the remaining 360000 US Dollars has been allotted for the construction of a guest house to the players and officials in Kandahar. These measures are expected to improve the cricketing standards of the war toiled country.

Earlier, the ACB submitted their proposal for the above-mentioned project to the Ministry of Economics which was later approved by the Government of India.