Contrasting journeys for rival captains

The focus during Michael Clarke’s 14-minute media conference prior to tomorrow’s World Cup fixture against Afghanistan was on the captain’s journeys, both recent past and upcoming.

Given Clarke has identified long-haul plane flights as potentially a contributing factor to the frustrating run of hamstring injuries he endured throughout last year, the fact that he’s flown almost eight hours from Auckland to play in Perth tomorrow, with another five-hour trip back to Sydney on Thursday it was a valid discussion point.

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“I don’t think there’s any proof that I’ve had injuries from flying,” Clarke said today when asked how his recently repaired hamstring might withstand a demanding schedule of two one-day internationals and 8,600 air kilometres in the space of a week.

Quizzed further as to whether he’s changed his in-flight routine to try and lessen the risk of soft tissue injury upon alighting, Clarke responded: “I'll just do the same as I've done in the last 12 years.”

“Try to sleep when I can, watch a movie when I can't (sleep), get up and walk when I'm sick of watching movies, eat as much food as possible and don't drink alcohol.

“We haven’t got the massage tables on the flight at this stage, as good as Qantas are.”

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Clarke speaking to the press in Perth // Getty Images

The Australia’s skipper’s travel concerns were placed sharply in context when his rival captain in tomorrow’s historic first World Cup meeting between cricket’s super power of the past two decades and a nation that sees the game as a chance to change perceptions and deliver hope, fronted the media.

Mohammad Nabi is a softly-spoken man who exudes a sense of steely serenity and has led his team in the final stage of its remarkable rise from aspiring cricketers who dreamed of a world beyond ideologically-driven violence and lives of uncertainty to instead fight their way to a World Cup.

The off-spinning all-rounder, who turned 30 today, marks his own personal journey tomorrow by leading a proud and fiercely competitive squad on to the WACA Ground in Perth as their anthem rings out for the first time on a Test match ground in Australia.

Born and raised in a refugee camp near Peshawar on the Pakistan border in 1985 after his parents fled their homeland during the war against the Soviet Union, Nabi embraced cricket as an escape from the harshness of life in a makeshift tent with little food and no clean water supply.

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Nabi's turn to front the media // Getty Images

The skills he showed as a 10-year-old playing with the remnants of whatever bats and balls could be found among the dislocated community were noticed by cricket officials from Peshawar and he was given a chance to pursue more formal tuition at a local cricket academy.

It’s a path not unfamiliar to others in Afghanistan’s squad, but one that is as alien to an Australian team nurtured through junior development programs, elite academies and world-leading training and support facilities as the notoriously fast bowler-friendly WACA pitch will be to the visitors.

The challenges that Clarke’s team face heading into a match they are not only expected to win but dominate from the outset are decidedly first world.

The slight side injury to one of their express pace bowlers (Pat Cummins) that is expected to see him replaced by another (Josh Hazlewood).

The return to fitness of one of the game’s most valued allrounders (James Faulkner) which might force selectors to jettison one of the others who would be a walk-up start for most other teams in the tournament (Mitchell Marsh or even Glenn Maxwell).

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Faulkner is fit and firing // Getty Images

And yet, all the pressure and expectation will fall heavily on the shoulders of the home team when play gets underway at 2.30pm Perth time as Afghanistan’s assistant coach – the former Queensland and South Australia wicketkeeper Peter Anderson – tacitly acknowledged today.

“We know we are up against probably one of the best teams in the world and arguably the best pace attack in the world,” Anderson said.

“It’s shop front for us, it’s an opportunity to show the cricketing public, the world, what talent we have in Afghanistan and I know the boys will do themselves very proud.”

When pushed on whether his team can claim a victory in all but tournament points simply by dint of the fact they won through to this World Cup by defeating the game’s top second-tier nations in 2013 having risen from the global game’s fifth division just five years earlier, Anderson paused briefly.

The former Papua-New Guinea coach, who himself seemed destined for a Test career until a broken thumb playing for Queensland opened the door for replacement keeper Ian Healy, claimed Afghanistan stood a “50 per cent” chance of winning because they were one of the sides out there  in a two-team contest.

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Afghanistan celebrating their maiden World Cup win iver Scotland // Getty Images

The Australians concede they have not seen much of the ‘Blue Tigers’ other than the snippets of Afghanistan’s World Cup campaign to date – which included their famous maiden victory over Scotland – on television and the video footage that was viewed at this afternoon’s team meeting.

“Like every other team we'll go through all the individual players, have a look at their strengths and the areas we think we can attack,” Clarke said.

“But I've obviously watched them play throughout this World Cup.

“I think they've performed really well, a few of their individuals in particular have really stood up.

“The wicket (at the WACA) looks fantastic out there, so there might be a bit of pace and bounce as well for their opening bowlers who have done a very good job throughout this tournament.

“We'll certainly study our opposition this afternoon.”

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Nabi confirmed that his team has also been studying video of the all-star line-up they face tomorrow, even though five of the Australians (Clarke, David Warner, Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Starc) played in the two teams’ only previous ODI meeting in Sharjah in 2012.

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A win for the ages // Getty Images

It’s unlikely the Afghans will study the same video of Johnson’s bumper barrages that earned Zimbabwe’s Tinashe Panyangara banishment from his team’s training camp when he shared it with teammates via social media when Australia toured there for an ODI tri-series last year.

But Nabi knows the impact their performance, successful or otherwise, will have in a nation that has endured so much in his lifetime and which celebrated last month’s win over Scotland with a fervour that suggests cricket has a much longer and stronger future in Afghanistan.

“Scotland was our first win in the World Cup, everyone enjoyed that game and everyone back home in every city,” Nabi said today.

“The President (Ashraf Ghani) called to congratulate the boys for playing very well the whole tour, the last three games and (former President) Hamid Karzai called as well.

“The boys are really confident from that match.

“We prepared for the conditions using World Cup wicket conditions in Dubai, we practiced there and some special drills during the training session.

“We are ready.”