Cricket gives Afghans hope

After victory over Scotland, national team now faces tournament favorite Pakistan

20211029 AfghanCricket

Afghanistan's Rashid Khan celebrates the wicket of Scotland's Brad Wheal, during the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup match between Afghanistan and Scotland in Sharjah, UAE, Monday. © AP

ANDREW NORTH, Contributing writer

KABUL -- On a balmy autumn day in west Kabul earlier this week, two contrasting realities of current-day Afghanistan were in play. Armed Taliban guards were using lengths of thick rubber hose and bamboo poles to control a crowd pressing at the gate to a compound where charity workers were handing out emergency food aid.

And on a strip of open ground alongside, a group of teenage boys were ranged around a pair of makeshift wickets, happily playing cricket. It is a sight you will see nationwide, because Afghans are cricket-mad.

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