Headline Dec.26/ AFGHANISTAN'S *CRICKET* AFFIRMATION

AFGHANISTAN'S *CRICKET* 

AFFIRMATION

WEARY AND TRAUMATIZED, ONLY  two things can give the students of Afghanistan any escape from their very difficult daily lives :

One is Cricket and all their Cricketing stars, all as heroes  to Afghan faithful  and Two,  The World Students Society which will very soon begin its initialization and rise in that very beautiful and suffering land.    

THE WORLD STUDENTS SOCIETY -belongs to every single Afghan student in the world, One Share-Piece-Peace,  just as it belongs to every single student in the world.

The whole world ought to stop,  and for once,  review the interest and performance of the students of Afghanistan on both Sam Daily Times and the World Students Society?

SOME OF THE children/students walked for two hours. Others paid about 30 cents for the bus ride. Some left home in their faded blue uniforms, backpacks and all, but skipped school rather than risk missing anything.

NOW they are here, at the Kabul International Cricket Ground, among a crowd of roughly 300 who are watching the final of local league, with a $15,000 prize for the grabs. It is 75 degrees in the sun of early afternoon.

Most of the older people in the crowd sit in the stands, in the shade of pop-up marquees, 

But not these children  They are pressed against the the blue railing, their eyes intent above its spearlike tips, and just below the razor wire that is supposed to prevent anyone from entering the field.

They are not just cricket fans -they are fanatics, commentator-mimics, encyclopedia of often-imagined trivia about their favorite players. And just curious demanding children.

For hours, they remain intent on every play, almost immediately returning to the railing each time they are chased up the stands by a Taser carrying guard.  

Many of the players in front of them are stars : celebrities propelled by the game from villages and dusty refugee camps to the highest national, and even international, stage. So when the fans demand, they gladly oblige.

''Hey Shafaq, sign this, will you?'' shouts one boy, sticking his cap through the railing at Shafiqullah Shafaq, a member of the country's national team who is fielding at the boundary now for one local side.

Mr. Shafaq steps over the boundary rope and signs cap after cap on his raised knee.

As the play resumes, he drop the pen and runs after the ball. ''Shafaq, any chance for a photo?'' Calls another young fan.

''After this ball,'' Mr. Shafaq says. Phone after phone is handed over to him as he extends his arm, smiles, takes selfies with the children behind the railing, and then hands the phone back.

''Playing in our own nation, for our own people, it gives me happiness,'' Mr. Shafaq said after the game.

Cricket has had a remarkable rise in Afghanistan, and after its first team was born, more than a decade ago, by players returning from the dusty parks of a refugee camp in Pakistan.

NOW Afghanistan's team consistently ranks in the world's top 10.

''A very long journey, in a very short time,'' said Shukrullah Atif Mashal, chairman of the  Afghanistan Cricket Board. ''I think it's a great example, for all institutions in Afghanistan.''

In the documentary ''Out of the Ashes,'' which beautifully captures the Afghan's cricket team's rise, one player recites a couplet that describes the team's philosophy -and the escape this unlikely game continues to bring to a weary and traumatized nation:

*Pull up your sleeves and dance

 The happiness of the poor comes
 only now and then* 

AFTER every victory, every step up in the rankings, the team is, in fact, welcomed home with song and dance. 

Fans and officials wait at the stadium with flowers and music. The players are driven around Kabul in the bask of trucks, trophy in hand, smiles beaming.

The players' faces are all over billboards and commercials. Television channels carry their games live, radio stations compete for the commentary.

In the small province of Khost, four local television channels and eight of the 10 local radio stations broadcast games live, sometimes even local provincial games.

The International Cricket Council, the sport's organizing body, gives Afghanistan about $1.4 million a year. Additional funding comes from private sponsors, their numbers increasing with the game's popularity.   

LIKE almost everything else in Afghanistan, the game is not untouched accusations of ethnic bias and cozying to certain political groups. But Mr. Mashal, the chairman, says he is committed to equal development of the game across the country.

These days, a top national team player could make as much as $10,000 a month, with everything from a salary to match fees included, according to Mr. Mashal. 

That is a large sum in a country where police officers monthly salary is about $200. Then there are  private league for bonus income.

THE TOP Afghan players also play for the game's largest international leagues, in Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Caribbean. 

The talk these days is about two players who were given contracts in the lucrative Indian Premier League, the highest private stage for the game.

The Afghan teenage star Rashid Khan got a whopping $600,000 contract, and a veteran, Mohammed Nabi, received $46,000 -all for about six weeks play. 

With respectful dedication to all the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW!  -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Flawless Collections '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless