BACKGROUND

Afghan Connection has supported cricket in Afghanistan since 2008 when Alex, the founders son, had the idea of taking cricket equipment to Kabul for the struggling Afghan National Cricket Team. In a determined bid to bring cricket to the children of Afghanistan, AC formed links with the MCC (Marylebone Cricket Club) which has backed our projects ever since. Meanwhile, the Afghan Team has risen through the ranks and played in the World Cup T20. Through Raees Ahmadzi’s AYCSO (Afghan Youth Cricket Support Organization), the team now supports Afghan Connection-MCC Spirit of Cricket, by providing coaching at their cricket camps. Read on for more details of the work that AC are doing with The MCC and SCA (Swedish Committee for Afghanistan) in building cricket pitches, holding cricket camps and providing cricket equipment in Afghanistan.

Matthew Fleming, former Kent Captain and MCC representative helped establish the partnership with the MCC, which to date has funded 27 pitches across Afghanistan and AC’s first cricket camp, held in Jalalabad in 2009 for 150 boys. The camp was attended by Fleming, who also accompanied Dr Fane to open the first pitches in schools. The Evening Standard published an article about the trip and as a result, a donor came forward and gave AC 3 years funding to promote cricket across Afghanistan. Since then, 16 cricket camps have taken place across Afghanistan, 3 of these for girls. One of these camps for girls was funded by UNICEF.

WATCH A SHORT FILM OF MATTHEW FLEMMING'S VISIT HERE

CRICKET PITCHES

In 2008- 2009 AC built 7 pitches in schools funded by the MCC .Each school is also given a budget from which they can choose to repair buildings, construct latrines, wells or playgrounds or add new classrooms. The children also receive cricket kit and can attend cricket camps.

In 2010 a further 10 pitches were built in 10 different schools across 8 different provinces in Afghanistan. Combined with the funding for repairs, the pitch constructions were a great success.

In addition to this, in 2011, 11 more pitches have been built across Afghanistan bringing the total AC-MCC-Donar funded pitches to 27 (one was funded by Guardian readers after some fantastic press coverage).

Click here more details on the specific pitches and school upgrading here.

CRICKET CAMPS

Led by Raess Ahmadzai (AYCSO) and members of the Afghan Cricket Team, AC runs up to 10 cricket coaching camps each year for boys, girls and children with disabilities.

In 2009 the the first AC/MCC Spirit of Cricket camp was held in Jalalabad for 150 boys from 10 schools. The entire Afghan Cricket team along with Raess Ahmadzai coached the boys for 3 days and Matthew Flemming also attended. The success of this camp led to the students going home and setting up after school cricket clubs.

In 2010, 6 more camps were held in Khost, Laghman, Logar, Wardak, Mazar-i-Sharif and Kabul. Excitingly, 2 of these camps were held for girls. Each camp was attended by 50 students and was organised bu Raess Ahmadzai and his NGO, Afghan Youth Cricket Support Organisation. In addition to this, 140 girls attended an AC funded camp for UNICEF in Jalalabad and further 50 girls attended a camp in Kabul, for Newsround with the hopt to show a positive news story for Afghanistan. 2010 also saw funding for a Street 20 cricket development programme in Kabul.

After such success in 2010, it was not surprising that in 2011 AC has seen even more enthusiasm for the cricket camps amongst Afghan boys and girls. 9 more camps took place in 2011 - These included 3 girls camps; one in April and 2 in the run up to International Cricket Day on 23rd June. Two boys camps in Kunduz, one in Mazir-i-sharif and four more for boys across the summer. We were thrilled to receive the feedback below:

“We really need the cricket training camp like this and especially as a representative of all girls in Mazar request from the sponsorship of (Afghan Connection) and (AYCSO) to arrange us more and more training camp in the future."  Breshna, aged 14

 “I learned many basic cricket related things that I was really interested in. And we received complete cricket kits that I can use to play cricket in future. Thanks Afghan connection & AYCSO" Maryam, aged 10

WATCH A SHORT FILM OF THE CRICKET CAMPS HERE

In October 2011 our first cricket coaching training camp took place. It aimed to train 24 people including teachers from schools where we have built pitches, to ICC Coaching Level 1. This is part of a long term plan to build up the number of qualified cricket coaches in Afghanistan. Dr Fane went to visit...

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In 2010 we held ten cricket coaching camps for 600 girls and boys. Camps were run in Logar, Wardak, Khost, Mazar-i-sharif and Laghman soon after the Afghan National Team secured a place in the World Cup Twenty. Each camp was for 50 boys who were coached by members of the team, but up to 12,000 turned up to catch a glimpse of their heroes and watch from the sidelines.

AC held a camp for 200 girls and boys to celebrate Peace Day and Afghan Youth Day with UNICEF in Jalalabad. 140 girls turned up and had a day of a lifetime playing cricket in the sunshine and receiving their prizes from the Governor of Nangahar

2 camps have been held for girls in Kabul, led by female coaches from Pakistan. This is a massive step forward and we run the camps in secure areas adhering to Islamic cultural traditions. The girls show real potential.   

AC funded the Cricket4Change camps in November, where teachers were trained how to teach simple street cricket to children and also to children with disabilities.

In this wonderful partnership with the MCC and AYCSO and with generous support from a private donor, Afghan Connection is now taking cricket to all corners of Afghanistan. The true Spirit of Cricket is spreading joy and hope to this war torn Nation.  It is a new story for Afghanistan…a good news story at last.