Asghar Afghan, a former captain of Afghanistan, will play cricket once more for the India Capitals team in the Legends League Cricket. The towering right-hander, who helped put Afghanistan’s cricket on the map of the world, is eager to play for the Gautam Gambhir-coached team. Asghar Afghan shared his opinions on LLC, Afghanistan’s performance in the Asia Cup, their problems with local cricket, the grandeur of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, and much more in an exclusive conversation with Hindustan Times prior to the competition.
Asghar Afghan: Afghanistan performed admirably throughout the Asia Cup, but I think we should have taken home the trophy. We were performing there. We were very familiar with the circumstances. T20 is also our best format. Many of our players compete in various leagues all over the world. We each have a tonne of talent and expertise, so we ought to have won the competition. Afghanistan was perhaps one of the favourites.
The main consideration is our schedule. We don’t play against bigger teams very frequently, which is why you see us losing close games and games that go to overtime. In Pakistan’s case, it took place. This will continue if we don’t play against top teams frequently. The game will go on until the very finish, but we won’t be able to end it. If we don’t play against top-tier opposition, we won’t develop many players of the highest calibre. Things can never get better if we only play against top competition once a year, and even then it may be in a multi-nation tournament.
Sadly, the quality of cricket in our country is not what it ought to be. It requires a lot of work from the board. My observations over the years indicate that our domestic cricket is not taken seriously. Our senior players avoid it and instead favour playing in foreign leagues. Our young players are also impacted by this since they lack the maturity to handle high-stakes scenarios in games against formidable opponents. The team that competed in the Asia Cup has been together for four to five years, and as I previously mentioned, some of the players play in various leagues, which allows them to compete but not the younger generation.