With political situation taking a new turn in Afghanistan, uncertainty and unpredictability is looming around the future of their top cricketers, especially Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi, who are due to compete in the remainder of the IPL in the UAE from September 19. The Taliban is set to take over the reins of the South Asian country as President Ashraf Ghani has reportedly fled to Tajikistan. Rashid and Nabi are not in Afghanistan. They are in United Kingdom, competing in the ‘Hundred’ tournament.
Rashid is playing for Trent Rockets and Nabi is representing London Spirits.
The BCCI is keeping an eye on the developments and is hoping to see participation of Afghan players in the India Premier League.
“It is too early to comment but we are keeping a watch. For us, nothing changes and we expect Rashid and other Afghan players would be part of IPL,” a BCCI source told PTI.
It remains to be seen if Rashid and Nabi stay back in the UK after completion of ‘The Hundred’ on August 21 as they have families back home. And if they stay back in UK, it will be interesting to see if the BCCI asks them to be on the same charter flight that will take the Indian players to the UAE from Manchester on September 15.
Both Rashid and Nabi play for Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The BCCI is expected to speak with the Afghanistan Cricket Board on the situation.
As per ICC’s FTP schedule, Afghanistan are scheduled to tour Sri Lanka for six white-ball games this month but the final schedule is still not out yet. Rashid is Afghanistan’s T20 captain. Rashid, Nabi and Mujeeb Zadran are some of the Afghanistan players who are regular feature in IPL teams.
Rashid is one of the most sought after T20 freelancers in world cricket currently.
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Both Nabi and Rashid have urged the world leaders to intervene as Afghanistan faces its worst socio-political crisis in the last two decades.
“Dear World Leaders! My country is in chaos, thousand of innocent people, including children & women, get martyred everyday, houses & properties being destructed. Thousands of families displaced. Don’t leave us in chaos. Stop killing Afghans & destroying of Afghanistan. We want peace,” Rashid had tweeted a few days back.
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