While the weekend’s headlines were dominated by unsavoury matters, two fairytales provided welcome proof of sport’s brighter side, says AOC columnist David Green.
In the same weekend that Luiz Suárez plunged even further depths – just days after the England football manager resigned in the wake of his public support for a captain facing charges of racially abusing the brother of his erstwhile central defensive colleague – two of sport’s most uplifting stories were welcome indeed.
If Pakistan’s ‘greenwash’ of England in the recently completed Test series was the biggest step yet in a remarkable story of redemption since the shame of Lord’s 2010, then the tales of Afghanistan’s cricket team and Zambia’s footballers are even more compelling.
Last Friday, Afghanistan played their first ODI international against a Test nation when they took on neighbours Pakistan in Sharjah. They lost, but put up a fight that suggested they would give Bangladesh and Zimbabwe a run for their money, and probably England too in Asian conditions. England’s terrorised batsmen should note that a certain Saeed Ajmal went wicketless.
Afghanistan’s journey to this memorable day, as documented in the acclaimed film Out of the Ashes, has been nothing short of astonishing. Out of tyranny and combat has emerged a potent force that has climbed the ranks to the point that – along with Ireland – they are now arguably the best of the non-Test playing nations. Given that they have poor facilities, cannot play any matches at home and have received limited funding, their rise is miraculous.
Cricket has proved a unifying force in a divided country. Indeed, one Afghan politician suggested that up to 80 per cent of his countrymen, both home and abroad, followed the game against Pakistan. With the upcoming qualifiers for the ICC World Twenty20 in March, neutrals will be hoping to see the rise and rise of Afghan cricket continue. Who knows, could their irresistible climb even lead to full member status and Test cricket?
As cricket is to the people of Afghanistan, so football is to Zambia. Witness the joyous celebrations in Lusaka after the triumph of its national side in the final of the African Nations Cup in a penalty shootout against overwhelming favourites Ivory Coast on Sunday. Zambia’s story perhaps eclipses even that of Afghanistan’s cricketers.
A talented Zambian side was on the brink of qualifying for its first World Cup and feted as one of the favourites for the African Nations Cup when they flew to Senegal for a qualifying match on April 27, 1993. Tragically, they never reached their destination, as the plane crashed shortly after refueling in Gabon’s capital, Libreville, taking the lives of all aboard the aircraft.
A new team built around captain Kalusha Bwalya, who played for PSV Eindhoven and was making his own way to Dakar, somehow managed to get to the final of the African Nations Cup just a few months later, where they lost narrowly to Nigeria. They also agonisingly missed out on World Cup qualification by just one point.
That they won this year’s African Nations Cup was even more poignant given that not only was their opening game with Senegal, but the final took them to Libreville, of all places, for the final. In the lead-up to the final the team gathered on a beach just a few yards from the crash and not far from the stadium where the final would be played, where they sang and laid flowers in the water for their compatriots who had died. Two days later, they paid the best possible tribute to their memory. As manager Hervé Renard said, their triumph was “written in the stars”.
That Zambia’s victorious footballers and Afghanistan’s cricketers should reach the zenith of their respective journeys on the same weekend was a welcome reminder that sport, on occasion, can extend beyond its normal parameters and uplift us in unexpected ways.
David Green is the warped mind behind The Reverse Sweep cricket blog and regards Douglas Jardine as his ultimate cricket hero. You can follow David on Twitter @TheReverseSweep
Click here to read what might have been if the 2013 World Test Championship hadn’t been postponed
Nothing Can Confound And Inspire Quite Like Sport
While the weekend’s headlines were dominated by unsavoury matters, two fairytales provided welcome proof of sport’s brighter side, says AOC columnist David Green.
In the same weekend that Luiz Suárez plunged even further depths – just days after the England football manager resigned in the wake of his public support for a captain facing charges of racially abusing the brother of his erstwhile central defensive colleague – two of sport’s most uplifting stories were welcome indeed.
If Pakistan’s ‘greenwash’ of England in the recently completed Test series was the biggest step yet in a remarkable story of redemption since the shame of Lord’s 2010, then the tales of Afghanistan’s cricket team and Zambia’s footballers are even more compelling.
Last Friday, Afghanistan played their first ODI international against a Test nation when they took on neighbours Pakistan in Sharjah. They lost, but put up a fight that suggested they would give Bangladesh and Zimbabwe a run for their money, and probably England too in Asian conditions. England’s terrorised batsmen should note that a certain Saeed Ajmal went wicketless.
Afghanistan’s journey to this memorable day, as documented in the acclaimed film Out of the Ashes, has been nothing short of astonishing. Out of tyranny and combat has emerged a potent force that has climbed the ranks to the point that – along with Ireland – they are now arguably the best of the non-Test playing nations. Given that they have poor facilities, cannot play any matches at home and have received limited funding, their rise is miraculous.
Cricket has proved a unifying force in a divided country. Indeed, one Afghan politician suggested that up to 80 per cent of his countrymen, both home and abroad, followed the game against Pakistan. With the upcoming qualifiers for the ICC World Twenty20 in March, neutrals will be hoping to see the rise and rise of Afghan cricket continue. Who knows, could their irresistible climb even lead to full member status and Test cricket?
As cricket is to the people of Afghanistan, so football is to Zambia. Witness the joyous celebrations in Lusaka after the triumph of its national side in the final of the African Nations Cup in a penalty shootout against overwhelming favourites Ivory Coast on Sunday. Zambia’s story perhaps eclipses even that of Afghanistan’s cricketers.
A talented Zambian side was on the brink of qualifying for its first World Cup and feted as one of the favourites for the African Nations Cup when they flew to Senegal for a qualifying match on April 27, 1993. Tragically, they never reached their destination, as the plane crashed shortly after refueling in Gabon’s capital, Libreville, taking the lives of all aboard the aircraft.
A new team built around captain Kalusha Bwalya, who played for PSV Eindhoven and was making his own way to Dakar, somehow managed to get to the final of the African Nations Cup just a few months later, where they lost narrowly to Nigeria. They also agonisingly missed out on World Cup qualification by just one point.
That they won this year’s African Nations Cup was even more poignant given that not only was their opening game with Senegal, but the final took them to Libreville, of all places, for the final. In the lead-up to the final the team gathered on a beach just a few yards from the crash and not far from the stadium where the final would be played, where they sang and laid flowers in the water for their compatriots who had died. Two days later, they paid the best possible tribute to their memory. As manager Hervé Renard said, their triumph was “written in the stars”.
That Zambia’s victorious footballers and Afghanistan’s cricketers should reach the zenith of their respective journeys on the same weekend was a welcome reminder that sport, on occasion, can extend beyond its normal parameters and uplift us in unexpected ways.
David Green is the warped mind behind The Reverse Sweep cricket blog and regards Douglas Jardine as his ultimate cricket hero. You can follow David on Twitter @TheReverseSweep
Click here to read what might have been if the 2013 World Test Championship hadn’t been postponed