Afghanistan eyes to end its drought for international cricket

LONDON (SW): Afghanistan is likely to end its drought for international cricket matches if a proposal under discussion with the Indian cricket board gets approved.

Shafique Stanikzai, Chief Executive of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has said in an exclusive interview with the ESPN cricinfo that if Afghanistan and India sign the MOU, which has been sent to India, potentially Afghanistan Cricket Board will be in a better position in scheduling One Day Internationals ODIs with India and scheduling ODIs with teams traveling to India on an annual basis.

Stanikzai said the draft had been presented to BCCI president Anurag Thakur in May and further discussions took place during the ICC Annual Conference in Edinburgh. The BCCI officials have not yet commented on the proposal.

With Afghanistan shifting their home ground from Sharjah to Greater Noida, outside Delhi, Stanikzai said Afghanistan were well placed, geographically and rankings wise for fixtures against India and sides touring India in the same way Ireland had secured more ODIs against teams touring England.

"Since induction into the FTP, a larger challenge arose for Afghanistan," Stanikzai said. "A is arranging fixtures with Full Members and B is funding it and finding funds to accommodate your needs. The expectation of the Afghanistan people has grown immensely. Afghanistan Cricket Board is under tremendous amount of pressure by not having fixtures with Full Members.

Comparatively, Ireland has obtained 14 [11] fixtures with Full Members thanks to its geographical proximity that helps it play with nations touring England.

A strategic plan unveiled recently by the ACB set targets for Afghanistan to be a top-six ODI team by 2019 and a top-three team in both T20Is and ODIs by 2025. Stanikzai was confident it could be achieved, considering Afghanistan's rapid growth on and off the field.

He, however, said the gains would be stunted, if there weren't enough fixtures against Full Members.

"Afghanistan needs to be considered in a very exceptional case," Stanikzai said. "Obtaining UK visa cost me USD 80,000 for the team. We don't have a UK High Commission in Afghanistan. We need to travel to India and obtain visas. Going there, staying there, it took us 21 days to obtain UK visa to make this tour possible. Playing Scotland and Ireland is costing us more than USD 350,000.

ENDS