Guest post: 'I watched a game of cricket'

BY ANDREW BIGGS

You’ve probably watched a game of cricket before as well, odds on you’ve watched a lot more than I have. Though I doubt it: I once took four days off work at The Warehouse to spend in Wellington over the school holidays to watch Skippy Sinclair rack up his debut test 200, one of my top five "live" sporting moments.

Two weeks ago, I think I witnessed my favourite sporting moment of all time...and it wasn’t in New Zealand.

It was the ICC Twenty20 qualifiers in Dubai featuring teams like Kenya, Canada and the "superstars" of associate cricket: Ireland and The Netherlands.

Yeah, I know, not a lot of IPL contracts were being scouted in Dubai, but it wouldn’t surprise me if you hear a few names such as Mohammad Shazad or Hamid Hassan in the next round of IPL bidding.

Who are these players? They’re the supernovas of Afghanistan, two players among another nine who blew the roof off the Dubai Dust-Bowl* and I was proud to watch every minute in person.

I’ve recently moved to Dubai and with our first proper weekend off from any kind of responsibilities, some friends and I took a day to go and enjoy the semi-finals of the ICC Twenty20 series. Entry was free and I was expecting to be one of 20 people in the 20,000+ seat stadium.

Arriving about 5 minutes after the start I was astounded by the sound emanating from the ground. Would I get a seat? It sounded absolutely packed. Well, it wasn’t… but there were 3000 screaming Afghani cricket fans packed up in the bleeders enjoying their opening bowlers tearing apart the completely un-supported UAE team.

We had, in all honesty, thought we should go along and support the UAE in their game, but after being at the ground for less than 10 minutes we changed allegiance immediately and found ourselves screaming alongside the Afghans for their team instead.

Afghanistan disposed of the UAE team quickly, qualifying for the final (and the World 20/20) and we watched about a thousand Afghan expats invade the grounds, risking not only their own health and well-being, but deportation from Dubai.

It was some of the most emotional and passionate sports support I had ever seen. Niall O’Brien from Ireland, who had walked onto the ground for some practice before their game against The Netherlands, was literally swamped by Dubai’s construction-working lower-class and shockingly swung his cricket bat aggressively at a few. It was sad to see the guy clearly not 'get' the passion on display. We were horrified and had a few choice words that were directed at him on the field, he got the hint.

Take a moment to think about this: would you, as a New Zealand cricket fan, risk your low-paid job on a construction site to invade the ground, support your national team, risk deportation or get arrested? I was told these 3000 supporters would be missing out on a day's work on the building site, so they most likely wouldn’t eat tonight. That’s support!

At this point, I turned to a rather wealthy looking gentleman beside me and got some background on the Afghanistan team. He was a contractor who had left Afghanistan and now worked in Dubai. He said their cricket team is actually quite famous back in Afghanistan, though no-one knows what their players look like.

With no-one owning a television and there not being any media coverage of their national team, they’re reliant on second-hand news reports and I guess Cricinfo** on how their team is doing. To rectify this, a team of two people were sent from their local radio station in Kabul to cover the games live and report back via mobile phone what was happening at the ground.

Despite these huge barriers to supporting their team, the Afghani fans would be back, but this time in greater numbers.

Sure enough, the final (under lights) was witnessed by over 7000 people, including a few Ireland fans and us, the off-the-boat new arrivals, cheering our lungs out for Afghanistan! Much to the joy of the locals.

The Afghani team, as promised, put on a show. First running through Ireland with a fabulous display in the field, the ever-exuberant keeper Mohammad Shazad, (who’s signature wicket-celebration is an awkward cartwheel across the pitch) taking a brilliant catch and the amazing Hamid Hassan putting on an expert display of death bowling, Ireland bit the dust only managing 142 off their 20 overs.

It was never going to be enough, the crowd was behind the Afghan team.

Sure enough, Karim Sadiq got the party started early with an amazing display of hitting, the biggest six of the day cleared the boundary onto the second terrace and his 34 from 15 balls set the tone for the ass-kicking that followed.

Mohammad Shazad walked out and promptly belted four fours in a row to get his innings started and the crowd exploded. We cheered every run. The crowd went ballistic when an umpire signalled a wide and when a boundary was hit you could hear blood-curdling screams echoing around the ground as the fans had to find new ways to ramp up the volume and support.

The man of the match, Shazad, finished off his complete domination by belting another massive six into the ICC's end of the ground. I guess, subconsciously, he was letting the suits know Afghanistan was here and here to stay. By then, the roof had been torn off the stadium, I was out of breath, out of voice and was giving high-fives to just about anyone nearby.

Out in the car park, cars were draped with home-made Afghani flags and the Dubai utes renowned here for causing accidents instead had clutches dropped and tire-smoke billowed around the ground. The locals played instruments, danced in their seats inside the stadium and many ran down the stairs to get outside the ground, in a desperate bid to run back to their government encampments to let their friends know their team was through. I’d spent since midday screaming for Afghanistan and I’d never seen celebrations like I had that night.

It’s an enduring memory of sporting passion, and gave me a good reality check just how lucky we are to have the New Zealand team. Sure, they may sometimes under-perform or drop a game here or there, but we do have an international quality sports team and no reason to not get behind them - that’s enough to cheer about sometimes.

We have amazingly talented players and sometimes, I focus too much on the negative with our national team. The Afghan match gave me a chance to cheer for the underdogs, they were ranked 6th coming into this tournament and left being the top team in the Associate grade. At the time of writing, they just cleaned up Canada in an ODI to the tune of 289 runs, Shazad again starring with 118. These guys are not just a flash-in-a-pan. They are ready to upset a team or two in the World T20.

Afghanistan may not have a lot to cheer about, but they do and do it with pride. If we in New Zealand can’t get out and support our national team half as much as these Afghani fans can, we’re not fit to be called cricket fans. The BlackCaps on their day are world-beaters and if we support them positively, they’ll win more often.

The Twenty20 World cup will see me cheering for the BlackCaps just that little bit louder, it makes a difference and if Afghanistan can defy all the odds that were against them, there’s no reason why our boys can’t do the same.

* My imaginative nickname for the clunky Dubai Sports Cricket Stadium.

** Afghanistan has been moved into their Main 'countries' section on their website. Well done!