Afghanistan and Ireland: New entrants with two different stories

After a long wait of 17 years, the entire cricket sorority welcomed two new countries to the world of Test cricket – Afghanistan and Ireland, as they grew to be the 11th and 12th Test nations of the cricketing world. Few cricketing specialists and pundits saw it coming, and rightly so. In last few years, both countries have performed really well in foremost tournaments and have been birthday party to some principal upsets in limited over format. Both of these groups have improved, and have been attracting the interest of the cricketing fraternity for the proper reasons. For example, Afghanistan defeating the West Indies in 2016 version of T-20 World Cup and later on defeating all other competing teams to win the World Cup qualifier tournament, and Ireland defeating two Test playing a nation in the 2015 ICC World Cup - these two nations have positively created a robust case for themselves.

It has been an excellent journey for both the nations to enter into the elite league of very few chosen member nations who revel in the right to play the purest layout of cricket - Test cricket. Both of the nations had their truthful share of conflict on this journey. If Afghanistan has been marred with terror activities denying them to play at domestic grounds due to protection concern, then Ireland, however, has been affected with the aid of extreme weather, canceling most of their home matches. With a restricted variety of domestic matches, both nations have relied heavily on different countries to host them. Due to this, they have had to forgo their domestic advantage in terms of friendly crowd, favorable pitch, and worldwide exposure to nearby cricket. Both of these teams have had to overcome this forgone advantage, and that’s why their experience is top notch and extraordinary compared to other member countries who played in home condition's to get the Test status.

In addition to these non-cricketing factors, there are many cricketing elements too, which has labored as boundaries to their cricket boom at local and worldwide level. Lack of ample opportunities for playing against the full Test-playing countries has hampered their game in all the aspects - batting, bowling and fielding. Even if they got a chance to play international cricket, they have been competing against the low ranked full member nations or the associate nations. Not playing against first-class teams like India, Australia, South Africa, England, even on a confined basis, has denied them the limelight which is a must, if you choose to popularize the game at the grass root level. Playing against great opposition and players triggers the smaller teams to come up with notable and impactful performances. Cricket grew to become a popular sport in India, solely when we defeated the greatest team of the 1980's, i.e, West Indies.

Cricket is incomplete without statistics. Since 2015 World Cup, Afghanistan has played only 38 One Day Internationals. Even in these 38 matches played, 20 are solely against one nation i.e. Zimbabwe, who are also struggling to make a comeback in pinnacle eight teams. The relaxation 18 matches have been against either the associate nations or Bangladesh, with West Indies being an exception when the island kingdom hosted the Asian side for 3 ODIs. When it comes to Ireland, the scenario is almost the same. They have performed only in 32 ODIs during the same time period and that too against the lower-ranked Test international locations or the associates.

However, it seems that the situation is positively changing for these two new members. With the new FTP released by the ICC recently, not only the two nations will be playing a good amount of matches (across all three formats), they will also be competing against the big teams as well. Afghanistan cricket, struggling due to lack of cricketing infrastructure, is being helped by BCCI. BCCI has opened its world-class cricketing infrastructure for Afghan cricket, and have been the best host to their so-called “Home Matches” in Indian stadiums. BCCI has stepped in and ensured that the improvement and influx of intelligence from Afghanistan doesn’t stop. This is has been a sizeable step taken with the aid of BCCI thinking about the enormity of efforts that Afghanistan has put in towards their cricketing development.

When it comes to Ireland, it is almost the other side of the coin. With great facilities back home and most of their players taking part and getting a precise amount of publicity in the county championship, they sincerely have a robust background to foster younger talent and fresh blood. The foremost roadblock in their case has been the extreme climate that has resulted in ‘wiping’ out most of their suits hosted via them.

The impact of these two nations becoming a full-time Test playing nation will be discovered and analyzed in the future. However, one element is for certain that the success of these two international nations has given a ray of hope to the different accomplice nations as well. ICC wishes to discuss the barriers and come up with a blueprint for the succession graph for different accomplice nations. But for now, it’s time to see more of ‘pashtoon’ and ‘chicken’ dance (in whites) on the cricketing field.