Afghanistan to play white-ball series against Pakistan in UAE in September

KABUL: The Afghan cricket team will face Pakistan for a white-ball series in September ahead of the T20 World Cup in 2021, officials at the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) said on Monday.
The three-match series, which includes three One-Day Internationals (ODI) and an equal number of Twenty20s, will be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“It’s very important for both countries,” Farid Hotak, ACB media officer, told Arab News, saying the winner of the series would have a better ranking in the World Cup.
He said the Pakistan series would be followed by cricket matches against Australia, India, and the West Indies.
“It is part of the ODI league matches to qualify for the World Cup 2021,” ACB Director Raees Ahmadzai said. “We played three matches already with Ireland and won all three.”
Both Hotak and Ahmadzai rejected media reports the cricket matches were a result of a meeting between Afghan cricketer Mohammad Nabi and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier this year when Khan vowed to ensure a cricket series between the two neighbors.
Several Afghans, residing as refugees in Pakistan for the past few decades, have learnt to play the sport in the neighboring country, enjoying global success in recent years by defeating more experienced and renowned cricketing nations.
Afghan cricket players, especially the likes of Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Golbadin Naib, have become a source of pride for the war-torn nation, both at home and abroad.
A recent escalation in violence across Afghanistan – part of decades of conflict in the war-ravaged nation – has also impacted the country’s gaming sector, with a number of sporting events, including cricket matches, coming under attack.
In May 2018, at least eight people were killed and dozens injured in a series of blasts during a cricket match in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad. In September 2017, a suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint near the main cricket stadium in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least three people as a tournament was under way.