A crisis meeting between the Afghanistan Cricket Board and national team players has agreed to establish a four-member group of “impartial” persons to find and present a solution to several of the players’ grievances in “three or four days time” to the ACB chairman, Hazrat Omer Zakhailwal.
As reported on Tuesday, the Afghanistan players had quit their duties for the upcoming tour to the Netherlands in protest at the shortcomings in the board. Although no-one thought this strike would happen in the end, it was worrying how bad the relationship between the players and the ACB was.
One of the reasons the players wanted a strike was that they perceived a lack of cricketing knowledge from the Chief selector, Hamid Shenwari, and the CEO of the board, Aimal Shenwari. They would like Raees Ahmadzai, the long-serving Afghan batsmen, to replace either of these men. We will have to find out whether this happens or not.
The Afghan players were also unhappy at the demotion of Mohammad Nabi, the team’s star all-rounder, from the vice-captaincy position in favour of the bowler Mirwais Ashraf. I said at the time that this was a strange move, but we now know that Mohammad Nabi had a disagreement with board officials. It is reported that giving the vice-captaincy to Ashraf also had to do with his good performance against South Africa in the World T20. This sounds weird as Nabi has been the best player for years. But I suppose this decision backs up the players’ argument about the knowledge certain people in the board have about cricket.
So, as expected to happen, it appears that the strike has been called off for now. However if Aimal Shenwari and Hamid Shenwari retain their posts, you should expect to see another revolt against the board from the players.
A reminder that if you want to catch the conclusion of the Afghanistan domestic competition, afgcric will have live commentary of the last few matches.
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