Afghanistan Players' Participation In Domestic Cricket Set To Be Made Mandatory For Selection In Test Team – Reports

According to a report in Cricbuzz, Mirwais Ashraf, who is the chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), is planning to make players’ participation in domestic cricket ‘mandatory’ for the selection in the Test team.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board has included some new competitions in their domestic cricket calendar for the year 2022 including a List-A event, three T20 events, two longer-version competitions and an age-level cricket tournament.

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Speaking to Cricbuzz, Mirwais Ashraf said that domestic cricket is important for the development of the game in the country. He added that star leg-spinner Rashid Khan, if available, will also participate in first-class cricket.

“Domestic cricket is very important and a key department for developing any cricketing nation. We are also trying and we also have a plan to make it stronger,” Ashraf told Cricbuzz.

“We want to make the domestic (first-class) competition tougher to prepare for the ICC Test Championship and we have a plan that all players should participate in first-class cricket.

“If he (Rashid) is free, then he will be available in first-class cricket,” he said about Rashid, who himself had declared that he will put national duty above franchise cricket.

Afghanistan Cricket Board CEO Naseeb Khan has also said that the board will ask star players to participate in first-class cricket.

“If seniors are available, then they should play in the first-class cricket competition. Earlier, our stars like Rashid and Nabi used to play, but there was war in our country.

“Now, the situation has totally changed and we can go anywhere by road. Now the situation is improving and we will ask them to play our first-class cricket,” said Naseeb.

Afghanistan Cricket Board is set to host Provincial Grade I and II competition, which will be a one-day tournament from March to May, Regional Under-16 one day tournament, Regional T20 and Regional three Day tournament.

Also, in June-July, ACB will host Shpageeza Cricket League (T20) and Abdali First Class Tournament, which is a four-day tournament. Meanwhile, from September to December, ACB will host Regional PwDS, Regional Club Championship and finally GAK List A Cup, as reported by Cricbuzz.

We have World Cups and Asia Cup, and we are preparing for these mega-events – Afghanistan Cricket Board chairman Mirwais Ashraf

Mirwais Ashraf, who is the chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, has said that they are preparing for mega-events like World Cups and Asia Cup by trying to have bilateral series against the full member nations.

“We have World Cups and Asia Cup, and we are preparing for these mega-events. We are trying to have bilateral series against the full member nations because they are tough opposition. We already have super league matches against Australia, Pakistan, India, and we are all focused on the tour to give a good positive result,” he said.

He further talked about the recently concluded series of the Afghanistan National Cricket Team against the Bangladesh National Cricket Team and said that the series will help the team perform well in upcoming tours.

“This series will be very useful and helpful for team Afghanistan for the upcoming tours and this was a very good experience. Bangladesh is not an easy side in their own conditions and we played very good cricket in Bangladesh,” he said.

“You can see that we wanted to give chances to youngsters to prepare for the big events. We want them to prepare and contribute with the senior players. We have got some superstars like Rashid, Mujeeb, Nabi, Rahmat and Hashmat. We want these seniors to help the youngster to grow without taking too much pressure.”

Meanwhile, he signed off by saying that the interim head coach of the Afghanistan team, Stuart Law, is good and they will discuss with team management before offering him a new contract.

“Stuart Law is a good coach and he is quite new. We will discuss this with the team management, especially with players and others. If everything is ok we might extend him,” he said.

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