waqas dar

Vote to your Favorite Team @Guests @Member @V.I.P Member @Administrators @Client @Moderator @Owner @Registered @Sweet Friend

This is our October maintenance release. Key changes include: Updates to the Calendar App to showcase online and offline events View the full article

This is our September maintenance release. Key changes include: Improvements to marking posts as solutions View the full article

This is our August maintenance release. Key Changes include: Improved search bar UI. New ability for topics to be published on a future date. View the full article

All platform key changes: Improvements to the fluid mode per forum view hCaptcha added as a new CAPTCHA option for use on the Contact Us form and when accepting guest posts Ability to only log searches from specific member groups New solved/unsolved filter for activity streams Speed improvements when rebuilding Elastic Search indexes Fixes and improvements to our Zapier integration Self-hosting key changes: PHP minimum version increased to 7.4 Platform key changes: New product architecture to consolidate existing cloud functionality and to provide forthcoming features View the full article

This release is to fix a security issue our internal teams identified. It is specific to those that use the REST API and also uses a CDN to cache page output. View the full article

This is our April maintenance release. View the full article

This is our March maintenance release. View the full article

This is our February maintenance release. Key changes include: Support for IndexNow, a new way to inform search engines of new content. New Webhook trigger points. View the full article

Not yet. But they will. You can already hear the foxsports reporters sharpening their pencils and and getting ready to talk about the magical Adam Gilchrist and his innings of mass destruction in the IPL. There will be no talk of his dropped catch or missed byes. They are no downers when we reflect on the glory days. If Australia lose one game in the world twenty20 thingy there will be talk of how we should ask Gilly probably Hayden back into the side. It won’t happen (because it is stupid), but just talking about it will keep the mouth breathers happy. Gilchrists innings was amazing. Nannes was taken apart, Sangwan was dismissed, Nehra was brought back to earth, and Sehwag was bent over and made to say ‘i do not believe in sehwagology’ as Gilly spanked that ass. At one stage it looked like he was going to knock up a 30 ball hundred. But he did drop a catch, and did miss some simple byes. I may be the only Australian who will write that. And if some young journalist with integrity tries to write it over at foxsports, the editor will take that line out quicker than you can say, “Scott Styris is a *** god”. I love Gilly, but there is a reason he is retired, and a cameo, even one as sexy as this, shouldn’t change anything. View the full article

Ashes 2009: when freddie became jesus Gideon did one, Athers did one, and even the ECB did one. But the Ashes couldn’t possibly be dealt with correctly until I stepped in. So I have. Cricket with balls is happy to present, ashes 2009: when freddie became jesus. when freddie became jesus Available now on Amazon. On the back of the book it says: Became Jesus “He’s such a pleasure to watch that if I were a mad billionaire who hosted parties that people came to just because there was a lot of booze and freaky shit going on, I’d hire Ian Bell, strip him naked, oil him up and make him practise his cover drive for hours on end in a giant birdcage. Test cricket, though, isn’t that simple.” So says Jarrod Kimber, who goes where other cricket chroniclers fear to tread. Having left behind a film-making career in Melbourne and with marriage to his Pom girlfriend imminent, Kimber, the Australian author of the cult blog cricketwithballs.com, finds himself in England for the 2009 series. From his couch, in the stands, and with occasional press passes from the Wisden Cricketer, he produces a unique take on events on and off the field: when he’s not rubbing shoulders with cricket’s glitterati, he’s probably rubbing Steve Waugh up the wrong way. But amid the bawdy humour and ribald ranting is the kind of penetrating insight and love of the game that by the end of the summer had journalists of a more conventional nature tapping cricketwithballs into their search engines. So you really should buy it, if the ashes is your thing, it has 25% material from here, but the rest I just made up recently. If it isn’t your thing, just click on the link to do me a favour. Book number 2. The year of the balls 2008: a cricket disrespective. The book is available at Lulu, Amazon and Flipkart. For free worldwide delivery you can get it at the book depository. Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu. This is what it says on the back of the book: “If Wisden is cricket’s bible, then Cricket With Balls is its Satanic Verses. This is not a cricket book for the tea and crumpet set. You need to be a perverted sort of cricket fan to enjoy this. You’ll find yourself immersed in the players’ boudoir activities, cry at the Bryce McGain saga and will be asked to join Sehwagology. There are heroes, villains and tales of South African redemption that will make you question the very core of your being. The book has more cricket opinion than an orgy with Peter Roebuck, Navjot Sidhu, Arjuna Ranatunga and Geoffrey Boycott. Abducted directly from the blog cricketwithballs.com, this is the ultimate disrespective of the 2008 cricket year.” 10 reasons to buy the book: 1. Every book you buy is a slap in the face of Ricky, Lalit, Sourav, and South Africans. 2. Sehwag commands you. 3. Where else are you going to get a book with Jacques Kallis having *** and a complete list of world cricket blogs. 4. If I don’t sell many copies I will have to get a real journalist type job and write for cricinfo. 5. I have a list for all the people who have told me they have bought it, but haven’t, and I’ll be coming around your house with a machete. 6. You’d buy me a beer if you met me, so buy my book. 7. Dirty Dirk & Nice Bryce’s literary debut. 8. If my book fails, I’ll be so broke I’ll have to start ghost writing for Tony Grieg. 9. Being successful will take me one step closer to Natalie Portman. 10. To stop me talking about it. For those intense CWB fans. Autographed copies: Some of you sick fuckers may want me to sign your copy, happy to do so. That will bring the total up to 10 quid, not because my signature is worth that much, but because of the fucking around, you will also understand, I hope, that it will take longer to get to you.The autographs can be personalised. Just email me at cwb@cricketwithballs.com and i’ll sort ya out. Cricket Blogger’s Incentive: You might be thinking, why do I want a cricket with balls book, i write my own blog and I rule. Well how about the fact at the ass end of the book I have included every cricket blog from my cricket blog links (that I had up by December 31 2008). So you can buy the book and show your girl, guy, prostitute, mother or parole officer your blog in print. Pretty hot huh. The book: It is essentially a best of 2008 from this very site. Now I know what you are thinking, I already read every post religiously then print them out and keep them under my pillow. But this has a proper cover, and I have fixed some of the errors. It clocks in at 163 pages, and has all my favourite posts from last year. Unless you are a freak you probably haven’t read every one. Don’t feel obligated to buy it, it isn’t like I have given you thousands of free posts without really profiting enough to buy a nice new suit. The foreword: Yes it is the real Gideon Haigh, I cannot believe how many people have already asked that. I know I take the piss a little, but I wouldn’t put a bloke’s name on the front if it wasn’t really him. If you want know how I got someone this respected guy to do my foreword, let me just say I can be very persuasive with a crow bar when holding someone’s cat. Self Published: Essentially this is published by Lulu, but there is no publisher pushing it. The English publishers thought it was too Australian, and the Australian publishers thought it was too International. So I just published it myself, as I think it is the dogs balls. The quality is good, but I do not believe it is quite a 100% professional quality book, more 90%, but at the same time I’m not printing these in my bathroom, Lulu is a professional printer. Why are you still reading this shit, buy the damn book already. View the full article

I have received links to this story from about 30 people. I get less when Sehwagology appears somewhere. So if you all want it, here it is. I am a cricket, and these are my giant balls. Can I just say that the main objection to my site’s logo is that I’ve made the balls too big, clearly that is not the case. View the full article

Being that not enough of you have bought my book, I am forced to make my way into the real world of cricket writing. Shame on you all. For the ashes I wll be in the following places: Helping Patrick Kidd and the Times audience understand Nathan Hauritz. At TWC talking about the main match ups, the chin vs the chest. At crikey I will be here, and here. I might turn up here from time to time as well. There is probably another one I have forgotten. So if you catch yourself thinking, Jrod is quiet at the moment, perhaps you should check out some of these places. View the full article

It is easy to be negative. And fun. But we should also continue to look for the positives in the latest accusations in world cricket. That positive is Ijaz Butt. Not happy with ruining everything in Pakistani cricket he has ever touched, he is now taking the most grown up stance in world cricket by saying, “we aren’t cheaters, you are cheaters, you’ve always hated us, your mum is fat”. This kind of complete crazy bullshit nonsense could be used to make money. And the PCB needs money. So I’ve come up with a few ways that they can cash in on this amazing man. Are you crazier than Ijaz Butt? A game show where people are questioned on a number of high profile incidents or events, Princess Di and Tupac deaths, World Trade Centre, global warming, Aids and Justin Bieber. The person adjudged craziest from each week will be compared to Ijaz Butt’s answers on the same issues. To win a pile of cash you have to be voted crazier than Butt. The show is fixed though, as no one can be crazier than him. Ijaz Butt – unplugged A series of live Ijaz Butt stand up comedy routines edited into a best of DVD. Hear Ijaz Butt claim that the low crowd attendances are because of the English media, watch him mime Afridi putting a ball in his mouth, laugh as he asks, “what is the deal with Shoaib Ahktar?” His show stopper is a 20 minute smut filled monologue on how the CIA is bringing down the Pakistan cricket team with their rogue agent Shoaib Malik. All that Ijaz A reality TV show where you get a all access pass to follow Ijaz everywhere. Highlights include him complaining that Avatar, Miley Cyrus and Viagra are all conspiracies against Pakistan. Also, see Ijaz threaten a garden gnome for being a potential Indian Spy. Watch him foam out the mouth when the paper boy accidentally puts NOTW and the sun on his front porch. Press Butt Keep Ijaz Butt in his position in the PCB and open up all press conferences to the public at 20 bucks a pop. Sell Ijaz t-shirts outside. Or Ijaz bobble heads. Agony Butt Typical letter, “Hi Agony Butt, my friends and family have caught my boyfriend cheating on me several times, and I don’t trust him anymore, but I still love him, what should I do?” Typical response, “All your family and friends are out to get you, it is a huge conspiracy, they are the cheaters”. View the full article

At the moment, I have no access to Herschelle Gibbs’ book. But I assume it goes something like this. On women: “I’ve always respected women. When I’m in an orgy, I am constantly asking a woman if she is feeling ok, whether there is anything I can do to make her feel more comfortable. I’ve gone as far as paying for their taxi on the way home. You see, it doesn’t take much to treat a woman right after she’s let you cum in her ass and let her friend felch it out. Just a bit of respect. ” On match fixing: “To be honest, I’ve forgotten all the details.” On the South African clique: “One day I was pissed out of my mind, so I thought it would be cool to ask Graeme and Mark if I could join the leadership group. They said I had to go through an initiation. I thought it’d be fun, like paddles and shit. It started with me holding these two metal things E-somethings, and then they all yelled at me, pointing out all the mistakes I’d made, like not buying a copy of AB’s album, it took forever. The next part was me being locked in a room while they treated me like a dog. It was ok, until Jacque put a collar on me. That was weird. But then they asked me to watch Battlefield Earth, that film is seriously shit, so I decided to just forget about it”. On drugs: “I’ve tried buzz, scag, woop, pla, e, weed, 7, acid, purple drank, shrooms, s, charlie, ploppa, angel, sunshine, pebbles, kicker and zoom. Not all at once. That is an important lesson for all kids out there.” On Jacques Kallis: “I once saw him eat a live dog. He didn’t even shave it.“ On Hansie: “I think he was the biggest influence on my life. Without him, I don’t know where I’d be. He was just the perfect specimen of manliness, sort of like Steve McQueen, but cooler. He wore the best leather jackets too. People may not like him, but you can’t deny what a great man he was for South African cricket. Sometimes when Graeme is yelling at us, I close my eyes and dream of Hansie. I always feel better afterwards.” On Paul Harris: “Who?” View the full article

The last edition of the cricket sadist’s quarterly had a piece on spot fixing written by me. It’s now tragically out of date, but I think it’s worth a read. About a year ago a cricketer contacted me to talk about fixing in cricket. He was positive it was happening again, at ICL, IPL and International level. He even specified games that he and others thought it had happened in. I checked into these games and came up with other reasons why things happened the way they did. The player was very upset, but he didn’t see how coming forward would help out. In the next few weeks I was contacted by other cricketers and officials who gave me similar stories. Some were major names in international cricket, and some lesser known. All of them hoped I could do something, but like them I could do little. They had no evidence, just strong hunches, none of them would speak publicly about this, and all I could do was write on my site in the vaguest possible terms. Since then spot fixing has come to the attention of the mainstream media and seems as close to taking over cricket as it was at the end of the 90s. Essex players have been arrested by police. Shakib Al Hasan has come out saying people have offered him money before. Lalit Modi accused Chris Cairns of being involved in fixing in the ICL. Pakistani government officials line up waiting to accuse Pakistan of fixing anytime they lose. And there were reports of 27 players in the IPL being under scrutiny (which was later refuted). The players involved are from around the globe; this isn’t some dirty little Subbie problem. The betting might be based in India, but as we learnt in the late 90s, the players involved are from everywhere. During the late 90s you could throw a stone in International cricket and hit someone who was doing something that was less than ethical with bookies. The majority of the players involved got off scot-free, but cynical fans still believe that almost everyone was involved. I once heard Peter Roebuck say that he put Sanath Jayasuriya on a pedestal, and one reason was that he was 100% sure he didn’t interact with bookies unethically, and there were few other players of that generation of whom he thought the same. There is no way to know if that is true now, but fixing in cricket is here. If the spirit of cricket actually existed (and wasn’t some construct by a gin sipping crusty old man) fixing games would surely not be allowed. Few sports in history have been devised to allow betting on them more than cricket. Some scholars have stated that cricket was formed the way it was, because of the betting on the early matches. Allowing people to bet on each ball, over, wicket, boundary, wide, or batsmen is certainly going to get the attention of bookies. The more ways someone can bet on a sport, the more they are likely to. The player who was supposed to keep wicket for England in the first ever test match, Ted Pooley, was instead in jail in New Zealand. Apparently Pooley had bet on the individual scores of each batsmen: he said they would all score ducks and would claim £1 for each duck. Depending on reports there were between 8 and 11 ducks (the team they were playing had 22 players), and Pooley had been umpire. When the local businessman who was supposed to pay out didn’t, Pooley beat him up, which is why he was in jail. This was in 1877. That was a fairly obvious case of something, either match fixing, bad umpiring, or a bad bet by the local businessman. Now it is not so easy to spot. Unless phone calls, tax records, or witnesses come forward, how can you stop a bowler in a largely meaningless televised T20 game, like in the IPL, Big Bang or in English County Cricket, ensuring his over goes for more than ten. Or for a batsman to ensure that the 33rd over is a maiden in a one-day match. It is almost impossible; there are so many ways a cricketer to spot-fix a game, so few ways we can detect it, and a truckload of largely unimportant games for the players to fix in. Some people have talked about education; making sure the players know that taking money or even just talking to bookies can lead to loads of shit. But if cricket has showed us anything it is that even someone with the education of L Ron Stanford (sure he only went to College in Waco, Texas, but he still went there) can be moved by money over honour. When talking to one of my moles, I was told about ICL games that were so dodgy that both teams were trying to lose key moments at the same time. Some players reported that the games were so farcical, it was like they were scripted. If that were true, it meant that in one game of cricket, two loads of dodgy men had put money on poor performances for either side. Think of the level of corruption required in the game for that to happen. This year in England’s domestic T20 event they are bringing in the ICC’s anti-match fixing unit to watch the games much more closely. This was probably brought about by the arrest of Mervyn Westfield and Danish Kaneria after suspected match fixing in an Essex Pro40 game last year. People who have seen Westfield bowl before are at a loss for words at the thought of him getting paid by bookies to bowl expensive overs in limited overs cricket, as they thought that is what Essex did. I wouldn’t want to be the person in charge of finding spot fixing. Look at any Pakistani cricket game. Saeed Ajmal dropped three catches in one T20 match, Kamran Akmal refused to glove a ball cleanly against Australia, Mohammad Yousuf captained like it was his first game of cricket in the same game, Shahifd Afridi’s whole batting career must raise red flags and that is just the really blatantly obvious ones. It could be that all of these are match fixing, or that none are. How the **** could we know? Think about this scenario. An aging seamer is on his way out of international cricket, he is playing a one day international, and someone offers him 10,000 clams to bowl two wides in his 3rd over. He will make more with those two wides than he will playing close to ten ODIs. His international career is virtually over, he is cashing in, and all he has to do is remember to bowl two wides in his third over. Do you think you could spot the difference between a bowler bowling two wides in an over on purpose or by accident? Therein lies the problem. Unless the bookies are really poor with their choices of who they go after, or with the phone and money details, how would we know? We can’t rely on players as they are only human, some less so, the ICC can’t do much right, chances are they won’t make this their one victory and individual boards are likely to protect players involved as Australia has already done in the past. I’m not sure where that leaves us. As fans we can do little more than hope more players forget to match fix like Herschelle Gibbs did, or the players and bookies involved make mistakes like they did with the newly born again sainted Hansie. Only a proper international scandal will make the bookies crawl back into their gutters for a while. View the full article

Australia Were 10 Peter Siddle’s short of a cricket team. England Batted like the word declaration had never been invented. Hopefully that word has been by tomorrow. Are the ashes won? Sure, why not. Play of the day Anything Ricky Ponting did. Everything Ricky Ponting did. He was just on fire, bowling Clarke and his dodgy back while Smith and Watson watched on, his chats with umpires and batsmen, his slow cool walk in for a run out that wasn’t to be. And just being Ricky Ponting. Testicular moment of the day Ranjan Madugalle’s effort to give Ponting a 40% fine for stopping the game for let’s say 5 minutes, while he complained about a 3rd umpire decision that he thought he saw better from the centre of the MCG than one of the world’s best umpires sitting right in front of a screen. Why even fine him, why not just apologise to him for the whole situation. Make Erasmus come in and grovel before him. Give him more money. Find him a good bar. Go out on the bay, catch some fish, scale them, cook them in a garlic and lemon sauce, put them on a naked woman and have them delivered to his room. Working class moment of the day Trott plays off his pads well. Weird factoid of the day Jonathan Trott is the best invisible batsmen of all time. View the full article

In order for any ex ICL player to be let back into proper cricket they have to go through a few ceremonial activities. They shall be flogged by ex test players who are currently finding it tough to make ends meet. Players must bathe themselves in the urine of the pure, the under 23 IPL players. All hairs must be plucked from their bodies, one by one, in a process that should take 5 days. They shall have cheese graters taken over their testicles by the best Italian chefs in India. Their nipples shall be cut off with butter knives, and sewn back on by excitable teenage girls. They shall have to spend one hour with Navjot Siidhu. Players will have to impale themselves on bat cones, and then switch bat cones with the person to their right. Each player must cook and eat their faeces. And then to finish it off, the players have to grovel at the feet of Lalit Modi until he thinks they have learned their lesson. I know what you are thinking, I can’t wait to see this. Well luckily for you Zee TV are showing it, all they need to do is kill off the first born child of each employee and Lalit will allow them full access View the full article

We all know that in this perfect world the ICC never make an error. Imagine that this isn’t a perfect world and that they did make errors. Imagine that in this error riddled world the ICC had to release certain information via the internet. Imagine that they might redact certain bits of this information for legal purposes. Imagine that you could actually read behind these redactions if you knew how to work computers in a hot shot manner. Imagine then how silly and stupid they would look if the information they were legally obliged to hide could be read. Imagine the furore. Not that any of this would happen. The ICC is too smart for that. View the full article

View the full article

Now you can have a booty call with someone, and also have me live streaming in the film Death of a Gentleman in the background. I’ve never tried to have *** with me in the background complaining about cricket administration or playing a weird wristy swipe to wide long on before running out my batting partner, but I bet it’s hot. And who doesn’t want to get it on while Giles Clarke looks on disapprovingly. So go, netflix, chill, death of a gentleman. Cricket admin documentaries are the new porn. View the full article

We talked about Amir until someone else talked louder. And other things cricket. View the full article

Brendon McCullum is in mid-air. He is above the ground, above the ball. Floating. Flying. The ball is heading for the boundary. McCullum sticks his hand down just before his body hits the ground. He stops the ball, but his hand, his shoulder, and most of his spine are on the padded triangle. The ball dribbles off slowly. McCullum crashes into the LED advertising boards behind the rope. He gets up wringing his hand. The match is against Bangladesh. It is the last of New Zealand’s group games. They cannot be anywhere other than first in their group. The game means nothing. It should mean nothing. McCullum doesn’t play like that. He doesn’t think like that. He doesn’t lead like that. He flies into danger. Sometimes he crashes. **** Mitchell Starc to Brendon McCullum is how you start a World Cup final. The first two balls to Martin Guptill were little more than a cocktail sausage. McCullum and Starc was the whole spit roast. That first ball seemed too quick out of Starc’s hand, but somehow McCullum’s bat speed was even quicker. The whole thing was such a blur that there was even a micro moment where the crowd was waiting to see if it was six or out. Instead it had flown past the base of off stump. Brad Haddin did a little “I can’t believe it” skip. Starc reach for his head in despair. McCullum just stared back at him. The World Cup final had started. **** Six World Cup semi-finals. New Zealand were virtually in a permanent state of semi. It was one of the more remarkable, almost invisible, records in cricket. New Zealand are nearly almost never not good at ODI cricket. New Zealand are never great at ODI cricket. In 1975 they ran into West Indies. Glenn Turner might have been batting in that tournament like no one could get him out, but he did get out and West Indies won with 119 balls to spare. In ’79 they were up against England, and had 221 to chase in 60 overs. They ended up nine runs short with one wicket in hand. Glenn Turner went out with 60 to get. Richard Hadlee with 42 to go. Geoff Boycott took 1 for 24 from his nine overs. Saeed Anwar could not be dismissed in the 1999 semi-final, and New Zealand didn’t set him enough to really test his skills anyway. In 2007, Mahela Jayawardene made 115 and New Zealand’s top six combined for less than that. Four years later New Zealand played Sri Lanka again. They made 217 and Sri Lanka were 160 for 1 before four quick wickets scared them, but not enough to prevent them cruising into the final. If you meet Martin Crowe, there is a chance that, not long into meeting him, he will mention not being on the field for the whole ’92 semi-final. This was the tournament of Crowe. He let Mark Greatbatch attack in the batting. He used Dipak Patel with the new ball. And he smashed Australia for a hundred. Crowe did all this while looking good and sounding like a cricket genius. In the semi-final, he continued to smash. He scored a better-than-run-a-ball 91 that was only ended by a run-out. At this stage, the ’92 World Cup was Martin Crowe’s tournament. New Zealand made a huge total of 262, the highest score of any game not featuring Sri Lanka or Zimbabwe. But Crowe had hurt his hamstring, so he sat out the bowling innings, with such a big total already in the bag. Even so, Pakistan still needed 123 off the last 15 overs. New Zealand should have been in the final, but instead, Inzamam-ul-Haq came into our lives and Pakistan won the World Cup. Crowe has never forgiven himself. Crowe left the field, and the tournament. Of all of New Zealand’s almosts, this was the most almost. **** Lose toss, be asked to bat. Face sixth ball of World Cup, smash it over cover to the rope. Score 65 off 49. Win match. That is Brendon McCullum starting the World Cup. New Zealand bowled out Scotland for 142. The game is over. But New Zealand don’t just want to win the game. They want to win the net run rate. They want to dance gloriously over the line in the shortest amount of time possible. First ball McCullum faces, he slashes wildly and mishits it over cover for 1. Then a drive to the fielder. Then a perfect cover drive. Then a dropped flick. Then a turn for one. Then a crazy charge and swipe to the rope. New Zealand’s innings is much the same as that. Instead of dancing across the line, they stumble out of the pub after having a cracking night. Tim Southee produced one of the greatest bowling performances in World Cups against England. Old swing bowlers were watching in tears. Some of his deliveries seemed designed to not only dismiss English batsmen but humiliate them for years to come. Everyone should have been talking about him for years to come. Fifteen minutes after his seventh wicket, his name was already fading away. Had McCullum been holding a chainsaw he couldn’t have done any more damage to the English bowlers. He made 77 from 22 balls. There were four dot balls and two singles in that. The rest was too brutal to relive. In Auckland, Australia were 51 for 1 after six overs. It is hard to attack with that going on. So McCullum didn’t attack. He changed the attack. Daniel Vettori came on. In his first 23 balls, Australia only took 13 runs. His 24th ball dismissed Shane Watson. Australia were 80 for 2. They would not double that score from there. Mitchell Johnson tried to break McCullum’s, um, arm but he still made a third of the chase in 24 balls. Somehow, even with the back of innings already broken, Mitchell Starc almost stole it with 6 for 28. McCullum took Starc for 16 off eight balls. Vettori had seven catchers against Afghanistan for a hat-trick ball. Later that game, McCullum almost took out Guptill with a down-the-track cross-bat straight smash. Win toss against West Indies. Watch Guptill bat. Move to seventh World Cup semi-final in country’s history. **** New Zealand came into Test cricket in 1930. Their first-class cricket was probably not much stronger than that in Argentina at the time. A first Test was against England. A day later England played another Test against West Indies. Australia played their first Test against New Zealand in 1946. They did not consider it a Test at the time. New Zealand made 42 and 54. Australia did not play New Zealand again for 10,136 days. In 1955, New Zealand went into the third innings 46 runs behind England. England won the match by an innings and 20 runs. In this period, New Zealand had many players but only one champion. Bert Sutcliffe. For 12 Tests, he proved to everyone that New Zealand belonged in Test cricket and should be taken seriously. It was Sutcliffe’s 13th Test that changed him. Neil Adcock was the bowler. He was patient zero for South African quick bowling. Adcock had this flock of hair that would stand on end as he hurled the ball in. It was cute. It was the only thing cute about him; the rest of him was terrifying. He bruised everyone he played against. Australia’s Colin McDonald once said, “Tell this bastard I’ve got a family to go home to.” This day in Johannesburg, Adcock was bowling length balls, at pace, that according to Sutcliffe were going “almost vertical”. Both New Zealand’s openers were hit before they were out. People at the ground talked about the sound the ball made on Sutcliffe’s head for years afterwards. Sutcliffe slumped to the ground unconscious. He got up, and even walked off the ground. As Sutcliffe got to hospital, Lawrie Miller was hit right on the heart, and started spitting blood. Two other players were hit as well. At the hospital, Sutcliffe lost consciousness again. The image of Sutcliffe going back out to bat at Ellis Park looks more like a war photo than a cricket one. His head is covered in a bandage. There is a huge lump on the back of his neck. According to Richard Boock’s The Last Everyday Hero, on Sutcliffe, “[captain Geoff] Rabone and a couple of first-aid men raced into the middle to readjust the Kiwi’s bandages, which had been weeping blood during the exchanges. They eventually decided to tape a white towel around his head.” Sutcliffe smashed the ball while he was out there. He smashed Adcock, and the great Hugh Tayfield. He went after everyone. Sutcliffe went past the follow-on with a six. At nine down, Sutcliffe was still unbeaten; he started to walk off the ground. Bob Blair was supposed to bat at No. 11. Blair’s fiancée had tragically died in the Tangiwai train crash the day before. Blair was in mourning. Sutcliffe, and most at the ground, thought that Blair wouldn’t bat. He did. He played one scoring shot, for six. Sutcliffe ended up with 80 out of 187. The two men showed amazing bravery. At that time, these two brave men batting in a losing cause was New Zealand’s greatest day. New Zealand lost the game by 132 runs. **** McCullum doesn’t run down the wicket, he hurls. It’s not a charge, it’s a challenge. The first ball from Starc might have beaten him, but that doesn’t stop him, it seems to spur him on. The Aussies must know who they are playing against, he must show them, he must bash them, he must end them. He is three paces down the wicket, and two outside the leg stump. He is standing in the middle of the MCG, nowhere near the stumps. Starc follows him. The ball is fast, again, and it comes in at him, again. This time it beats him outside his off stump and inside his leg stump. McCullum turns his head to see if Haddin has taken the ball, and then casually gets back into his crease. McCullum has not hit a ball. He is under attack. **** South Africa lose two early wickets. McCullum places every single New Zealander in a catching position. All four million of them. McCullum won’t back off. He keeps attacking. He uses up his best overs, he ignores his risky, fifth-bowler overs. He knows, he hopes, that if he goes hell for leather he can bowl South Africa out. He is wrong. In the end the most important force is the weather. Until McCullum enters with the bat, that is. You might be excited by Chris Gayle. You might love Glenn Maxwell. You might think AB de Villiers is the best batsman on the planet. But every single ball you miss of Brendon McCullum is a moment lost. Not just the boundary, or play and miss, but the feeling you get as the bowler comes to the crease. The cricket possibilities are endless. He could save the world, chop his own head off, or clear a stand at cover. It is all possible, it is all probable, in that final moment. The moment between delivery stride and McCullum playing a shot is the best moment in cricket right now. Against South Africa, he might as well have taken a sword, ripped off his clothes, hopped on a wild stallion and ridden into an invading army on his own. He has batted quicker. He has batted better. But never have 26 deliveries been more important to his country. In McCullum’s 4.2 over spell of destruction, he changed the entire run chase. It was mad. It was beautiful. It was almost enough. Later, New Zealand would win thanks to Corey Anderson and Grant Elliott. The whole country celebrated. They had defeated the semi-final. They had won the biggest game of their country’s cricket existence. They had won. They were almost World Cup champions. **** Thirty-nine years is a long time to wait for your first Test series win. When New Zealand did finally win a series, they did it in their own way. They had no champions in the team that won the only Test out of three. In that Test, the top score was from a Pakistani, and so was the only five-wicket haul. They had a collapse of 4 for 4. When they were finally chasing the target of 82, they lost five wickets. Plus, they did it away from home. In the third Test they had to hold on for the draw. They did it because one man made the heroic contribution of 23 and four wickets in the match. In the third innings, New Zealand fell to 108 for 8, with a lead of less than a hundred. Then Mark Burgess was joined at the crease by Bob Cunis. Neither would have played much, if at all, for other countries. Burgess played 50 Tests and averaged 31.20. Cunis was, and will always be, known as famously “neither one thing nor the other”. In two hours these two put on 96 runs. They put on a lead. Took time out of the game. Gave some hope. Burgess made a hundred, his second first-class hundred; Cunis 23. Which is neither one thing nor the other. Pakistan’s chase was two hours and 20 minutes long to score 184. Pakistan shut up after losing four wickets. Cunis took all four, 4 for 21. In that whole match, he took only four wickets and made 23 runs. In his whole career, he made one fifty and took one five-wicket haul. In the history of New Zealand cricket, there have been greater personal performances, but few that were as important. Bob Cunis was one thing that day: a hero. Don Neely, a former first-class cricketer and cricket official, later said: “It’s a pity this side hasn’t had greater recognition – perhaps their achievements were overshadowed by other world events in those tumultuous times, which saw men walking on the moon, as well as Vietnam and Woodstock.” New Zealand cricket had survived a war, some of the most humiliating defeats in Test cricket and a train tragedy, all on their way to one Test series win. **** McCullum has three slips. The ball is swinging. Aaron Finch is a distance away from it. And McCullum smiles. The rest of the world might think this is a formality. But McCullum has not given up. He has the smile of a man who knows the future, and it’s a World Cup victory for New Zealand. His smile is misguided, and magnificent. **** New Zealand’s second Test series win was against West Indies in 1979-80. They would be the only Test side to beat a full-strength West Indies. That started a whole new era of New Zealand cricket. The greatest days, at home and away. They beat Australia and England. They survived the underarm ball. And the team included a comic villain and a pretty hero. That moustache. There was no way around it. It was the moustache of a villain. It wasn’t just the moustache. Richard Hadlee had the sharp features of someone who would tie a young girl to a train line. And his eyes. They were supposed to look at you like that. Always. Hadlee seemed to pop out of a 1920s film and straight into the bowling crease. When Australian crowds called him a “wanker”, it was the highest honour they could bestow. Martin Crowe was like a beautifully illustrated coaching manual come to life. He managed to play forward and still late. He rotated the strike right up until the moment there was a ball he could hit for four, and then it went. His batting was calm and complete. When Crowe pushed through point, you wanted to convert to him. New Zealand had a team around them as well. They were the good old days. In 14 series New Zealand won nine times. But they weren’t the best team on earth, West Indies were. They never even made the semi-final of a World Cup in this era. New Zealand might have been at their best. But they weren’t the best. **** On the back page of Melbourne’s biggest newspaper it said, “Hey Bro” with a photo of Brendon McCullum. He is the superstar of this New Zealand team. Australia is a country that doesn’t know the difference between a Trent Boult, a Kane Williamson and a Luke Ronchi (even though he used to play for them). They know McCullum. McCullum has a great team, but he’s the face, the brawn, the leading man. And the man who can take Australia’s whole World Cup away. But he’s still not hit a ball after the first two deliveries. And the MCG is salivating as one. The whole ground feels moist. Eager. Desperate. Lustful. McCullum doesn’t run, charge or hurl down the wicket. He stays in his crease. Starc doesn’t hoop the ball. It isn’t a Wasim Akram ball. It didn’t have a devious mind and a cunning plan. It was straight and full, and it faded back. McCullum played it like a man who had just played and missed twice. McCullum was late. McCullum was wide. McCullum was out. The MCG reacted like it had won the World Cup. You could feel the shake in the stands. You could feel the shake in every person. You could feel the concrete erupting. The MCG had just won the World Cup. New Zealand will fight, they will hope, they will “dare to dream” but they will come to find what the MCG already knew – it wasn’t their day. “The greatest time of our lives” is how Brendon McCullum described this tournament. It was perhaps the greatest time of New Zealand cricket. Eight straight wins and a trip to the MCG for a magical day. It was almost. But their greatest almost. View the full article

Amjad Javed, Khurram Khan and Krishna Chandran Karate play cricket for the United Arab Emirates. They also work for one of the national airlines of their country, Emirates. Emirates is one of the major sponsors of the World Cup. Emirates has spent millions putting its banners up around the ground, sponsoring the reviews, playing its theme tune and generally making it known that it is the official airline of the World Cup. The World Cup is a billion-dollar event. Companies like Emirates spend millions to align their brands with it. But the Emirates employees who are out in the middle, they are doing it as amateurs. When Khurram plays a cut shot so sweet you could taste it, Javed stands over his run-up like an Olympic diver, and Chandran plays and misses at an outswinger by an infinitesimal amount, they are part of the event, part of the vision statement. But they are the freaks. Virat Kohli has his stats shown on the screen. The UAE players have their day jobs shown. At best they are company cricket ringers. Brought in to fill a job as a day-wager, or receptionist, or clerk, but they also play for their company’s team. Of course, even that can go sour, as Paul Radley pointed out recently in the Cricket Monthly, with the case of Rohan Mustafa: “He almost missed out on making the final World Cup squad due to a work dispute brought about, predictably, by cricket. Without written permission from his employers, he played in a domestic match for another corporation. It infuriated his boss to the extent that he brought a case against Mustafa for absconding from duty. The claim was upheld in court and he was told to leave the country immediately.” After the Emirates Cricket Board intervened, Mustafa received a new visa. Today he took a sensational one-hand catch at backward point and reviewed a decision while he was batting. That was from a ball he at no stage saw. The first time he saw it was on the big screen showing him how far he missed it by, and that he was playing a shot that doesn’t actually exist. Had his visa still been revoked, though, the catch would have got it reinstated. Mustafa is not an Emirati. Most of this squad are expats, even Amjad Javed, who was born and bred in the UAE. Their captain is Mohammad Tauqir, who is Emirati. After a two-year retirement, and despite the fact he was 43, he was brought back to lead this team. Against India, he played a sweep shot so poorly he started to fall over before he was bowled. His first over went for 11. Later he said: “We need to do the basics right.” When Australia played Pakistan in the UAE in 2014, they used Saqlain Haider (the back-up UAE keeper), when Brad Haddin couldn’t keep. Australia didn’t play the UAE. No one does. The ICC’s headquarters are in the UAE. Two other teams at this World Cup use it as a base. Everyone flies through it. The IPL was there. Sharjah has hosted more ODIs than most of us have been to. And yet it seems it is almost impossible, with all these tours, flights and training for international teams to actually play the UAE. As if full Test nations are allergic to them. Afghanistan, based in the same region, provide occasional games. Late last year, UAE beat them 3-1 in an ODI series. Prior to the World Cup, the last time UAE played a full ICC member was seven years ago. “The whole tournament is a learning experience for us,” was how Tauqir talked about the pinnacle of cricket. They are using it to get better. This is their chance at improvement – the rest of the time they have to daydream about what it’s like to bowl to Chris Gayle. Here, they will learn, the hard way. Naked and alone in front of everyone at a World Cup. Not in an ODI in Dubai, or Trinidad, years earlier. How do you improve if you don’t play the best teams? Should the UAE players visualise Umesh Yadav in training camps? Have their friends sledge them in Jamaican, South African and Indian slang from outside the nets? Pay tweeters to harass them? Until you have walked out on a ground knowing that the opposition has more analysts than you have players, you can’t truly know what top-level international cricket is like. “The more we play against bigger nations the more we learn” Tauqir said. But what if they don’t want you to learn, they don’t care if you learn, or generally care if you exist? The ICC tries to prepare them. By that, I mean the hard-working professionals who work for the ICC, not the chairmen who sit around counting “their” billion-dollar contracts and shooting off their mouths that the Associate sides are not good enough. The ICC got them Paul Collingwood and Mohammad Nazir to help out. It let them use its facilities. It gave them a small amount of money to keep them afloat. That money doesn’t change that the UAE players have to work proper jobs, have had a retired player replace their captain, don’t hold passports for the team they represent. It doesn’t change the fact that cricket teams ignore them, that the sport itself is trying to get rid of them. They already know they probably won’t be in the next World Cup. And there they are in Perth. At the WACA. Where professional teams, even the home team, have been humiliated. The UAE were sent to Australia to acclimatise. They were even sent to Perth. They even played one whole game at the WACA. Before this game they even had one whole day at the WACA to train. They spent the other day travelling from Brisbane. One game, one day, and then a World Cup match against India. At cricket’s most brutal ground. A ground that many teams have never acclimatised to, and all they had to do was play the world champions. A bunch of amateurs in a billion-dollar tournament against a team of millionaires – what did cricket think would happen? It happened. All day. Hook shots so late, the ball had already been forgotten. Batsmen handling swing like it had just been invented. Chandran’s entire innings was like watching a kitten take on a tank. They were at times beaten by pace, swing, seam, spin, lack of pace, straight balls, carrom balls. Oh, and bounce. The UAE cricketers know about the WACA. Tauqir called it the “most difficult wicket in the world”. They’ve probably seen illegal videos of Curtly Ambrose destroying Australia, or that wacky one where the pitch cracks almost killed the New South Wales 2nd XI. They knew the bounce would be tough. They tried to hook and pull, and at times, very fleeting micro moments, they handled it beautifully. Mostly, it took their wickets, through pace or spin. They were playing like a team trying to prove a point; they did prove a point, the opposition’s point. Those who want to get rid of teams like UAE will use this match to point out that Associates aren’t good enough. They will ignore the fact that West Indies got beaten in just such a lopsided game against South Africa. They will ignore the fact that UAE showed in their first game that cricket is actually stronger than even those who run it believe. They will ignore the schedule. The fact it was at the WACA. Anything. “They are just not good enough.” According to Tauqir they had “two good games and one off day”. Associates aren’t allowed bad days. Netherlands had two bad days and lost their ODI status. The Full Member teams could have 200 bad days and only lose games. While Emirates branding is everywhere at the ground, it is oddly not on the UAE team shirt. Emirates could easily spend 10% of its World Cup sponsorship on the national side. It doesn’t. It could easily have done a deal with the ICC where it asked to hold back some of that money and use it to make “their” side professional. It didn’t. The UAE players are used to this lack of support. Their bosses don’t always support them. The major cricket teams don’t always support them. Cricket doesn’t always support them. Today they didn’t support themselves. And while everything else might have led them to this place, it is the fact that they let each other down that will sting the most. These are men who train every night of the week despite working full time. They are committed to cricket. They are working on their games. They are learning. They are amateurs. They are proud. They are cricketers. They should be angry with themselves. “The Indian team is more professional,” Tauqir mentioned at one stage. “Professional”. How he must dream for such a day. The Indians are idolised, pampered and rewarded. His men are unwanted, unpaid, uninvited. And today they underperformed. View the full article

Michael Jordan. Lionel Messi. Mohammad Nabi. These are the replica shirts on the back of the Afghan kids in the crowd. Mohammad Nabi walks his team out onto the field. Mohammad Nabi walks his team into the World Cup. Afghanistan doesn’t have to rely on imported heroes anymore. Hamid Hassan is strapping. Other words do not do him justice. He has large shoulders. Large hands. Large pecs. Large glutes. He is an immense hunk of muscle. Hamid Hassan has an Afghanistan colours headband on. Stickers of Afghanistan colours on either cheek. He looks like a fast bowler. He bowls like a fast bowler. And when he completes his first ball, he has started Afghanistan’s World Cup history. The crowd cheer like mad. Another cricket journalist says, “That’s a big cheer for a dot ball”. It’s not a dot ball. It’s a wide. They have cheered a wide. Their wide. Their first wide in a World Cup. Hassan is one of the many players in this side who was a refugee. His family did not encourage his cricket. He cites Rocky Balboa as a hero. Hassan is more of a hero than any made-up character. When his body is fit, he is one of the fastest bowlers in the world. He once took a five-wicket haul in an ODI against UAE. This is his 25th ODI but only his second against a Test-playing nation. The only other one was also against Bangladesh. Hassan starts very fast. He appeals like crazy against Tamim Iqbal. All the newsrooms in the world use the image of him appealing. Hands out, mouth wide open, a scream at the umpire. Hassan might be appealing, but he is also screaming that Afghanistan are in the World Cup. The appeal is amazing, and in vain. Afsar Zazai was in the nets the day before, standing up and taking edges like a pro. His hands are quick, and soft. His footwork looks so sharp. He outshines many Test keepers. Peter Anderson, an assistant coach, asks to give him some full ones outside off. “No, full down leg”. He gloves them all perfectly. The next day he is in mid-air. Diving. Flying. For a nick. The ball drops on him and he plucks it with his left hand. All cricket fans in the world swoon. But while he is still flying the ball starts to come out, he clutches at his with his right hand. He keeps it in. According to Sid Monga, “Afsar’s family live in a small house with a temporary roof that can’t offer proper protection from the snow.” His hands are his family’s chance. His hands are magnificent. Afghanistan have their first wicket in a World Cup, caught Afsar Zazai, bowled Mirwais Ashraf. In 2009 Afghanistan lost a match in ICC World Cricket League Division Three. There were few in the ground. The games weren’t telecast around the world. The cricket world largely ignored it. But Hassan came off the ground crying. Documentary maker Leslie Knott, part of the team behind Out of the Ashes asked him why. “I have seen people die and I have not shed a tear. But there is something about cricket that gets me here [pointing to his heart]. Cricket is our chance.” A chance cricket didn’t want to give them. This might be their last World Cup. Cricket has told Afghanistan it doesn’t want it. The ICC originally wanted a ten-team tournament. They have already announced the next two tournaments are for ten teams. The Test-playing nations don’t care about the associates. They pay lip service, but the proof is in the contraction. Under the old ICC rules, Afghanistan couldn’t be a Test playing nation, as they aren’t even a Commonwealth country. They are not one of the special private club. The members don’t want them in “their” World Cup. They clearly aren’t here. They couldn’t say that if they were at the ground. They couldn’t say it as the fans join in for chants. As they proudly wave their colours. As they line up to have their faces painted. As they cry with joy. As the slam their drums, jump on seats and scream in delight with every meaningless act. They couldn’t say that as Shapoor Zadran runs in. Shapoor is glorious, even in the nets. His run-up is almost double the length of his fellow bowlers’. His run-up is beautiful, his hair is beautiful, his action is beautiful, his follow-through is beautiful, his appeals are beautiful. Beautiful. At one stage Shapoor bowls a quick short ball outside leg stump. The batsman misses it outside offstump. The keeper takes it in front of first slip’s throat. Any cricket official who tries to limit associate cricket should have to face Shapoor on a bouncy wicket first. When Afghanistan struggle, they throw him the ball. He bowls fast around the wicket. It is Imran. It is Wasim. It is Shoaib. It is Shapoor. The crowd chant. Shapoor, Shapoor, Shapoor. Two quick wickets fall to him. It is quick, it is skillful, it is fast bowling and it is Afghanistan cricket. Shapoor has been around a long time. When Afghanistan played their first international against Oman 11 years ago, Shapoor was there. So were Asghar Stanikzai, Mohammad Nabi and Nawroz Mangal. Their first recorded match as a side was 14 years ago when they played Nowshehra in the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Grade II, Pool B, Group I. Nawroz Mangal played in that too. Against Oman he made 101. Nawroz has been a source of pride for 14 years. Before most of his countrymen knew what cricket was. He looks far older and wiser than the 30 years his profile says he is. He has been a captain, a leader, and a rock of Afghanistan cricket. Today when he bats it is 3 for 3. He has been involved in more collapses than any batsman should ever be a part of. Today he tries hard, and stops the flow of wickets, but his 27 isn’t enough. Andy Moles is trying to produce more players with the sensible nature of Nawroz. He talks of education, and he runs his net sessions like a schoolteacher. He puts the shoes out for the bowlers to aim at with yorkers. He organises who will be in what net. When a bowler oversteps, he forces them to recheck their run up. He shouts things like “last 15 minutes” and “you better go in now if you want a bat”. And all the coaches repeat the “keep your head down” mantras as often as they can. This is a different Afghanistan than the one we’ve seen before; in the nets and in the middle, they have a new discipline. There are very few crazy slogs or loose balls. They play to plans and try to use their natural skills while curbing their natural enthusiasm. Moles is trying to Steve Waugh the whole side. Cut off the edges, make them harder and make them better. Greg Buckle wrote in the Daily Telegraph about how Moles was teaching the team cross-seam bowling at training just before this match. He is a cricket educator. Just a few months ago Moles told ESPNcricinfo, “Sometimes you hear a boom go off somewhere when coaching in the middle. You see Black Hawk helicopters flying over the ground, going on missions and coming back. Like coaching in a war movie.” They have come along way from the Taj Malik days. Taj Malik was Afghanistan’s first coach. Taj is the embodiment of every club-cricket hero in the world. There is nothing Taj wouldn’t do for Afghanistan cricket. He played coached, administered, smoked and bled for his team. And it was his team. Without Taj’s passion and inspiration, Afghanistan might not be here. He will teach kids on the street, or coach the national side. Taj is the man who walked back home from Pakistan to give his country cricket. Taj once declared he would throw himself in the Atlantic if Afghanistan didn’t win a lowly ICC tournament. When Afghanistan cricket grew, it outgrew him, but he planted it. A braggart, and a dreamer. He is Afghan cricket. He is cricket. Taj is not at the ground, he is back home. But this is his day, as much as it is Afghanistan’s and cricket’s. On the field their biggest hero Hassan is coming back on for this third spell. His pace has gone. Earlier in the day he was quick, then he tried to field a ball by sliding feet first at it. He missed it. And looked silly. Now his proper quick bowling is more fast-medium than fast. After seven overs he has taken no wickets, and conceded 41 runs. Bangladesh have a massive partnership, their batting stars are just about to take the game away from Afghanistan. The first ball of Hassan’s eighth over is a horrible full-toss, the next ball is a poor short ball, he looks slow and tired as Shakib Al Hasan picks up ten easy runs. The third ball he finds a dot-ball with a yorker. The fourth, with Shakib on fire, he bowls a clever slower ball. After he finishes the ball his big frame turns slowly around and walks back to the mark. His team-mates come in to celebrate his first World Cup wicket. By the next over he has taken another, this time he pumps his fists and has that Rocky spirit in his eyes. His pace is gone, his body is failing, he is off eight paces, and he is still fighting. The crowd scream Hassan, Hassan, Hassan. Samiullah Shenwari bowls seven balls, for two runs. Then is taken off. He is a legspinner who has been told three times he is running on the pitch. Afghanistan have overcome war, poverty and devastation, but even they can’t beat the laws of cricket. In the press conference Andy Moles says he never noticed Shenwari had a problem with running on the pitch. He was probably too busy making sure there were enough balls and the right people were in the right nets. Shenwari has little follow-through, and even less reason to be on the pitch, but he’s taken off and Afghanistan lose a bowler. A good bowler. One who averages 30 with the ball and goes for less than five an over. With the bat Shenwari looks good. Of all the Afghanistan top order he is the most composed, scores the easiest and moves towards a comfortable half-century. But he goes for a second, when there is not quite a second there. Brilliant fielding from Sabbir Rahman fires the ball back to the keeper and Shenwari dives. He lands in the turf. His face is down. He doesn’t get up. The replays are looked at by the third umpire. Shenwari’s body language is even more conclusive. He is out. He has run on the pitch, and then been run out. Shenwari’s run is over. Shenwari leaves Mohammad Nabi at the crease, and little else. Afghanistan need practically ten an over, but the crowd is cheering for Nabi. Nabi, Nabi, Nabi. From the book Second XI, Tim Wigmore recounts this tale. “In May 2013, Nabi’s father, a wealthy car salesman, was abducted from his car in the city of Jalalabad. For more than two months, his father’s whereabouts were unknown, despite a concerted effort by the government to find him.” Nabi’s father was found just before he had to play World Cup qualifying matches against Namibia in Windhoek. With his father only safe for a few weeks Nabi smashed 81* off 45 balls. Then he took 5 for 12. Namibia only managed 18 more runs than Nabi made. Today Nabi makes them chant his name. When they have no hope, he scores at better than a run a ball, he hits boundaries, his fans say Nabi, Nabi, Nabi. His final shot is one of a man who knows he can’t get them home. Nabi leaves the ground with a defeated shrug. Before the game young kids hold a flag in the shadows of the former MCG scoreboard. Their job is to take it out onto the ground. A simple gesture that has been done many times in this World Cup. The Afghan crowd scream as their flag is taken onto the ground. A man wearing an Afghanistan shirt, with his face painted in his country’s colours, is quiet. Around him are flags and his colours. There is another man painted from his waist to his hair in Afghan colours. Others are in replica shirts, branded World Cup shirts, homemade Afghanistan flag shirts and traditional Afghan clothing. It is a typical cricket scene. But as that flag moves from under the old MCG scoreboard out onto the ground, the quiet man eyes start to well up. He’s crying. He’s smiling. This is just a flag ceremony. Just a cricket game. Just an ODI. Just a World Cup game. It’s also the first time he has seen his Afghanistan walk out in a World Cup. Shapoor, Shapoor, Shapoor. Hassan, Hassan, Hassan. Nabi, Nabi, Nabi. Afghanistan lose. Their fans leave the ground with the same face losing fans from all over the world have. That look of emptiness once the hope has gone. A few hug each other. One shouts, “Well done. Afghanistan” at no one in particular. Then a song starts. It is Joy Bangla. A song of hope and of a new beginning about Bangladesh coming out of war and into brighter days. The Bangladeshis sing along as their players do a victory lap. A few Afghanistan fans dance along as they leave the ground. It’s not their song. It’s not their win. It will forever be their day. Afghanistan, Zindabad. View the full article