Afghanistan prepares for Cricket World Cup in Canberra
All smiles: The Afghanistan cricket team trains at Manuka Oval on Thursday. Photo: Graham Tidy
Born and raised in a refugee camp on the Pakistan border, Afghanistan cricket captain Mohammad Nabi is now treated like a rockstar.
Nabi will lead his team out against the ACT Comets at Manuka Oval on Friday, in the first of two one-day games as part of the war-torn country's Cricket World Cup preparations; the second game is on Sunday.
Like many of his teammates, Nabi grew up outside Afghanistan, after his parents fled the war against the Soviet Union to Peshawar, on the border of neighbouring Pakistan.
It was there he learnt cricket, playing with local children and using a battered tennis ball.
Advertisement
Not surprisingly, life was tough in the refugee camp living in tents without clean water and hardly any food.But slowly things improved for the now 29-year-old and they moved into housing in Peshawar, before eventually moving back to his parents' native Afghanistan.
"The refugee camps are not so good there is no clean water, no proper house to live, it's a quite tough life at that time ... but we have problems back home in Afghanistan," Nabi said.
"There's nothing good to eat, no good drinking water as well, and no good clothes or shoes, quite difficult life at that time, but after a few years we came out of the refugee camp."
Now he is one of 40 contracted Afghanistan players.While their facilities are not the best Afghanistan coach Andy Moles described the pitches as rolled mud they can earn a decent living to support themselves and their families.
Continue reading here:
Afghanistan prepares for Cricket World Cup in Canberra