Tuba Jan Sangar was in his office at the Afghanistan Cricket Board last month when his supervisor phoned him. “He said, ‘Where are you?’ He just told me to go home, “Sangar said. “Everyone was afraid the Taliban would kill us. I didn’t sleep for a week and I didn’t eat anything.”
For seven years, 28-year-old Sangar worked to make women’s cricket in the country, from forming school teams to finalizing a national team contract last year.
But Taliban militants were migrating to Kabul, declaring their conquest in Afghanistan and proclaiming the end of women’s freedom to study, work and play. Sangar and his associates, who have been fighting for years in Afghanistan, she was devastated.
Now in Canada with her family, one of the women athletes and sports directors has been relocated. Many others remain inside Afghanistan, fearing for their lives and for the future of sport in the country, one of the best things ever after 2001.
“Cricket is not just a game for the people of Afghanistan. “Everyone loves cricket,” said Sangar. “Now there is no hope. Our players, our staff, are in Kabul. They only worry about their lives.”
The Taliban, who banned sport while ruling Afghanistan in the 1990s, have made a significant contribution to athletes as their foundation an ugly charm. But it is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
How the Taliban support sport in Afghanistan will be an important test of what kind of people want to make it, and whether their promises of reform and change will be fulfilled. It is also unknown whether the global success that athletes such as men’s cricket team enjoy can continue under the Taliban. Australia has already threatened to suspend the exams in November if women are not allowed to play.
Sharda Ugra, a sports writer in India, said the Taliban wanted to make the game a “Potemkin village”.
“Cricket is their biggest investment in the world. Their response to cricket will be very important whether they want to participate in the international arena or not, ”he said.
“If they say, ‘We have no interest in what the world thinks of us,’ then all of us are annihilated together.
“The danger is that they can do a lot of bad things by playing the right game and running away from others [things]. ”
After launching into Afghanistan, the Taliban banned sports such as chess and buzkashi, a traditional sport in which horse teams compete to control goat meat. Others, such as football, were allowed to continue, even though Muslims used the stadiums to kill people.
Cricket became popular in the last few decades, taken over by Afghan refugees in Pakistan such as Mohammad Nabi, a former national team player with the best players such as Rashid Khan emerging during the Taliban. Afghanistan gained all the members of the International Cricket Council in 2017 and played a test against India a year later.
Khalida Popal, a former head of the Afghan women’s movement, helped many women runners flee the country © Ritzau Scanpix / AFP through Getty Ima
The women’s sport has also grown, with the country sending athletes to the Olympic Games and forming international teams.
“Our players are protesters. . . “Women’s football has become very political in Afghanistan,” said Khalida Popal, a former American football team captain.
When the Taliban regained control last month, they portrayed themselves as game sponsors, sending officials to meet the athletes and do everything from cricket to martial arts. The group nominated Naseebullah Haqqani, a highly educated Talib, as head of the cricket committee.
Attempts by the Taliban to provide a very low profile image have been repeatedly refuted by evidence of retaliation for the killings and massacres of so-called terrorists.
Their performance is not really encouraging for most athletes. A star like Khan has publicly declared his concern and frustration with the Taliban’s takeover when Zaki Anwari, a young player, died after clinging to a plane from the US last month.
Popal and others organized mass escape efforts, to help find more women athletes in the country.
The Taliban have issued various messages if women are allowed to continue playing sports. International organizations, such as the ICC and Fifa, have not said whether they will continue to allow men’s teams to play if women are banned.
But with the Taliban already banning women from work and education, Afghan athletes are not sure what to expect.
“Here, women cannot go to play. No, not at all, ”said a cricket team member who is still in the country but hopes to leave. “Men’s cricket teams make a lot of money, then [the Taliban] I will encourage. ”
“If they want us to wear long dresses and play, we will accept all of these,” he added. “It hurts so much to have a dream. I do not want my dreams to come true. Not just mine. I am. . . The goal for my team to play again. ”