Australia's ODI team, will play the emerging Afghanistan cricket team in the Middle East next month in the latest step that recognises Afghanistan’s increasing importance in world cricket.
The game has been organised as a warm-up for the Australia-Pakistan series, which immediately precedes the ICC World Twenty20 tournament in Sri Lanka, in which Australia, Pakistan and Afghanistan are all competing in September-October.
Cricket Australia Chief Executive Officer James Sutherland said Australia had been actively looking for a chance to play Afghanistan for some time and found an opportunity once details of the imminent Pakistan-Australia series in the Middle East had started to become clear.
“Everyone in world cricket have been really impressed with how cricket has flourished in Afghanistan, despite its pressing national problems,” he said.
“As an ICC member, Cricket Australia strongly supports world cricket’s ambition for cricket to continue to develop as a global sport and that, combined with the strong relationships between our two countries, encouraged us to look at how we might recognise and encourage Afghanistan by playing them on the field”.
“We also look forward to hosting Afghanistan in the ICC Under-19 World Cup in Australia in August”.
Mr Sutherland said the details of the Afghanistan fixture had been finalised at last week’s ICC Annual Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
The Afghanistan game is being scheduled to allow the Australian team to acclimatise before taking on Pakistan.
Background on Afghanistan cricket:
• Cricket has been played in Afghanistan since the mid 19th century
• The Afghanistan Cricket Federation was formed in 1995
• Afghanistan became an ICC Affiliate Member in 2001
• A national team was formed in 2001
• Afghanistan has been a member of the Asian Cricket Council since 2003
• The team failed to qualify for the 2011 World Cup, but did earn ODI status valid until 2013
• In February 2010, the Afghan cricket team secured qualification to the 2010 ICC World Twenty20, the team's first major tournament
• They have also qualified for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka
First Posted 02 July, 2012 11:55AM AEDT
