Afghanistan vs Zimbabwe in UAE (Dec - Jan)

zwarrior

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Afghanistan won? Wow. When I last checked the score, it was 120ish with 5 wickets down and I thought Afg is going to loose. Great victory for them. Both Zimbabwe and Afghanistan were great in this series. This series was so competitive that it felt like as if some top teams were playing. Wonderful series. Although feeling sad for Zimbabwe.
 
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Ohm

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Just to give people an idea of how big this win is in Afghanistan -


Wow, it's great how people in Afghanistan have assimilated our cricket, within only few years. Well deserved series win for Afghans, great job.
 

abhi_jacko

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They really need to give Ireland and Afghanistan test status. The time is ripe. They are both in top form and winning important games consistently.

They could possibly defeat ZIM in Tests. Maybe even WI and BD
 

Markkkkk

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And on their day South Africa.
 

CerealKiller

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Take a bow , Mohammad Shahzad ! What an innings. Really looking forward to seeing him bat in the World T20.
 

PokerAce

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I think Ireland and Afghnistan both, and Afghanistan definitely are now ready for test cricket. They are regularly beating a regular test side like Zimbabwe. This is the second straight ODI series they have won against the bottom ranked test side, and are now destroying them in the T20.

Why does Zim have test status and not Afghanistan? Okay I get it no one will want to go play a series in Afghanistan, but that can be worked around. Afghanistan can play their matches in the UAE or India as they already have an agreement with BCCI along those lines.

This subjectivity from the ICC on just what qualifies a side to get test status is laughable to say the least. Just give Afghanistan Test Status now, period.

And while the ICC are at it, they can grant one to Ireland as well.
 

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The thing I worry about with giving them test status is how they'll actually hold up in the longer format. Taking Ireland as an example, only a very few of their players can get regularly in county FC teams, that's not the best of signs overall.
 

PokerAce

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The thing I worry about with giving them test status is how they'll actually hold up in the longer format. Taking Ireland as an example, only a very few of their players can get regularly in county FC teams, that's not the best of signs overall.

I agree the road will be hard. Just look at Bangladesh, for a long period there was talk of stripping them of their test status because they kept getting walloped. They won their first test in their 35th attempt. In the attempts before that had three draws and 31 defeats. In their first 50 tests they had 1 win 5 draws and 44 defeats. Of the 93 tests they have played, they have won just 7 of them, 10 draws (3 of the most recent ones were rain wash outs), and lost 76. However after a generation they are finally able to compete in ODIs and T20s. This improvement would not have been possible without them having test status and being a serious cricketing side.

Take Kenya for instance. They emerged as the surprise package in the 90s, played multiple successive world cups, and even got to the Semi-Finals of the 2003 World Cup. Can you imagine how big an achievement that is for a non-test side. Yet they were not given test status, largely because the B'desh move was working out terribly and they were getting walloped every where, and ICC was getting criticised for having granted B'desh test status too early. Anyway the Kenyan cricket movement after that generation of Maurice Oudoumbe and Steve Tikolo and co., in the absence of test status, just petered away. Where is Kenya now on the cricketing map.

These are now two clear case studies, and one shows that with the presence of test status, one country was able to produce cricketers who could compete a generation later, while the latter shows that a country which as an associate nation was able to get to the Semi-Finals of a World Cup, in the absence of test cricket, has failed to produce the next gen of cricketers, and has just disappeared from the cricketing map.

The idea of granting Afghanistan and Ireland, test status is not about the short term. Yes there will be a decade or so them not competing and being the whipping boys. However the benefit will come a generation later, when they will have produced cricketers able to compete with the best. We already have the Kenya example, and I would hate for Ireland and Afghanitan to go down the Kenya route because of the absence of test status. Giving Ireland and Afghanistan test status now, will secure their cricketing future, or they too will fail to produce and inspire the next generation of cricketers and disappear like Kenya.
 

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