The heart warming tale of the Afghanistan cricket team reminds us that even in the cynical, some say morally bankrupt world of modern sport, true heroes can still emerge.
The country’s sensational rise through the cricketing backwaters from fixtures against Tanzania, Jersey and Argentina to their debut appearance at this months T20 World Cup is nothing short of miraculous.
To see the minnows share the field on Saturday against the games most richest and powerful money making machine tilts cricket back into the land of romance…..And lord don’t we need a story like this ?
As the world waits to see the fallout from the scandal hit IPL, its left to men from Central Asia, a harsh land which for many years was synonymous with being used as a pawn by both the Americans and the Russians in the cold war, to provide the fairytale.
'Afghanistan' and 'fairytale' are two very unlikely bedfellows......before the heroics of the nations cricket team began to take the sporting plaudits, I doubt if those two words had even been used in the same sentence.
'Death'.....'Killing'....'Mujahedin'…..'Bin Laden'.....'Civil War' ......'Opium'.......these were the headlines that would normally shape any story on the impoverished state.
But they have now been pushed aside by the antics of a team who have helped gladden the heart of any cricketing fan sick to the stomach of more nauseating and lurid headlines supplied by Lalit Modi and Co.
All this from a federation that only became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council in 2001, when the national team was formed.
They secured their ticket for this months tournament in the Caribbean following victory over Ireland in the final of the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier.
What’s more remarkable is that this victory was in February of this year….just two weeks after they had played their debut T20 international !
So what can we learn from this tale ?
That the purest form of competition still provokes the greatest stories.
For nearly three decades a nation which has suffered the turmoil and destruction of having been invaded by two global superpowers, can still rise up like a phoenix from the flames.
Perhaps the greatest virtue of all sport is its power in uniting a nation to believe in itself.
The men who proudly don the Afghan cricket shirt have earned that right, and to see them dine at crickets top table makes us all believe in the power and glory of sport.
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