Talent, T20 and the Taliban

With T20 World Cup and a first test in Australia so close, coach Lance Klusener hopes his team are allowed to play on. Scyld Berry of the Telegraph reports.

Lance Klusener, the former South African all-rounder, has always had a wild side. As a boy, he roamed the bush of Kwazulu-natal, gun in hand. His mobile phone photo is of an unused bullet lying in the dust beside a footprint. There are few men, then, who are better equipped to tackle a job which has become one of the most complex in world cricket: head coach of Afghanistan cricket.

A first test match against Australia, in Hobart in November, should have been the reward for two years of steady progress under Klusener. Instead, he finds himself in the middle of a geopolitical row which has erupted in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

It is “unfortunate”, Klusener says, that Australia are considering cancelling the game in protest at the Taliban’s stance on women’s cricket.

“It would have been a huge occasion, but every game for us is an away game and we are totally in the hands of the country we go to play in, Australia or the United Arab Emirates or wherever,” he adds.

It should come as little surprise that Klusener took on the challenge.

As the Player of the Tournament in the 1999 World Cup, Klusener dared to go where no one had gone before, becoming the first big hitter at the end of an innings, without getting out. He scored at the unprecedented strike-rate of 122 per 100 balls (an extraordinary return, even by modern standards; only two men in one-day international history, Andre Russell and Glenn Maxwell, have scored at above 120), at an average of 140.

“Personally, as a coach, to work with the talent Afghanistan have got and to help showcase it, that is why I get up in the mornings and help them to grow,” Klusener says. “I’ve never worked with any team that loves to play and practise so much.”

The majority of Afghanistan’s team still live in Kabul and a couple of nearby towns, even after the Taliban takeover, while a couple are based in the UAE.

Their provisional squad of 15 for the Twenty20 World Cup next month is about to be named, and it is worth remembering that Afghanistan were one of the top eight countries to qualify automatically, while Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have to get through the qualifying tournament if they want to be one of the additional four.

“What we have done against a lot of obstacles to automatically qualify for the World Cup is a huge, huge achievement,”

They have all grown up playing tennis-ball cricket in the street — there is nothing formal in the schools — and a lot of them have fantastic skills, very much selftaught. Lance Klusener

Klusener rightly says.

Already, there have been calls for Afghanistan to be banned from global tournaments as their new government prevents females playing the sport.

Klusener says: “We’re just going to have to wait and see. This government is barely two weeks old and it’s not about jumping to conclusions. These decisions will take time, to see what their stance is and what their policies are, then people can judge for themselves.”

Afghanistan’s domestic T20 competition had to be cancelled while the Western powers withdrew, although a practice game has subsequently taken place in the Kabul

International Stadium.

“There will be a delay,”

Klusener says, “but cricket is such a passion in

Afghanistan, it will soon be back.”

Klusener, 50, is still waiting at his home in rural Kwazulunatal to fly to the UAE to join up with his squad.

“I haven’t got out to Kabul during my time as coach because travel has been very restricted for foreigners. I’ve never been able to watch the women play because they play and practise behind closed doors.”

Rashid Khan, the world’s No 1 T20 bowler, has already made his public protest by resigning as Afghanistan captain and returning to the ranks. Klusener has not been consulted about his successor, and does not expect to be, but he is full of praise for Rashid, especially after his contribution to Afghanistan’s last game. It was a test against Zimbabwe in March in Abu Dhabi, and Rashid bowled 99.2 overs of wrist-spin to take 11 wickets and win Afghanistan’s third test out of six so far. “Rashid is one of the fittest cricketers you could wish to meet. Throw in that he is also one of the most passionate, and he’ll run in all day. After bowling 100 overs in that game, he was back in the nets two days later,” Klusener says.

“As a national team we need to have more fixtures, and maybe more fixtures against slightly better teams, like West Indies and Sri Lanka, with all due respect to Zimbabwe and Ireland.”

Afghanistan beat Ireland 3-0 in their last one-day series — Ireland having beaten England in one of their three ODIS last year.

What Klusener has seen in Kabul is talent generated by street cricket.

“They have all grown up playing tennis-ball cricket in the street — there is nothing formal in the schools — and a lot of them have fantastic skills, very much self-taught.

“It’s a problem with us in the western world that we over-coach, we coach the flamboyance out of the game.”

Similar to the West Indies 50 years ago?

“Yes, very much so. It makes the game much more exciting, but quite unpredictable, as you don’t know what you’ll get on the day.”

Klusener has seen the wonderful film about the rise — the uniquely sudden rise — of cricket in Afghanistan, Out of the Ashes, and says: “I think to a large degree it does capture the reality.”

One of the stars is Gulbadin Naib, who shows off his muscles in a Kabul gym, and became Afghanistan’s captain in the 2019 World Cup in England before being deposed.

“He’s still playing, and still in great condition, but we now have a couple of all-rounders to push him as we are getting this strength in depth.”

Even though they may never play an international match at home — like Pakistan for almost a decade, but even worse — Afghanistan’s cricketers have one advantage: being so dynamic, and uncoached, and passionate (and, one suspects, relatively cheap) they are in growing demand for T20 franchise tournaments.

“They know the direction they want their cricket to take,” says Klusener, remembering the first time he met his new charges.

“They know their cricket and who’s coaching them, and it took a little time for them to trust, then you see your young players being bought by franchises.”

That is why he will be getting up in the morning in the UAE next month, when Afghanistan, in spite of everything, could do anything.