Newly appointed Afghan Charge d'Affaires to India Tahir Qadiry said that the nail-biting India-Afghstan encounter in the ongoing Cricket World Cup 2019 was a win-win situation as the nation was cheering for both the teams.
"Cricket team is more like ambassadors of peace in Afghstan, when we were watching India-Afghstan match, the whole nation was cheering for both teams, it was a win-win situation for us. No matter who won, this is the time when nation won," Qadiry told here.
India is providing two training parks to Afghstan Cricket Team - one in Dehradun and other in Greater Noida. Qadry believes that this will give big boost to the team and they will emerge champions in the next tournament.
"Afghan cricket team is doing very fantastic. The match they had with India that night , that was the only time when Afghans and Indians were confused which team to support, I think at the end decision was that we support both teams no matter who wins the two nations had won," he said.
Defining Afghan team as "out of ashes," Qadiry said that cricket is a unifying factor in Afghstan
"In 2008, I followed the Afghan team when they went to South Africa. That time Afghan cricket team was not a big name and then some of my colleagues at the BBC making documentary out of the ashes so that is the base name we can give to Afghan cricket team," he said.
He further told , "Team nobody knew it, exactly coming out of the ashes today playing at international level on international ground personally I believe sports especially cricket has been a unifying factor bringing the nation together. It is so much linked to national identity to our pride, joy, coming together. The same night we had a cricket match with India, we had a football match happening in Iran with Japan and Afghan came second in tournament."
"Back in country when I was talking to people they were celebrating irrespective of who belongs to which province, which ethnicity so people forget about... One nation one voice we support our champions," he added.
Qadiry said wherever he goes people ask about Rashid Khan. "Each part, each event we go to people approach me and keep on asking me about Rashid Khan and they say you bring him in here and I feel proud that is nobody asking me about drugs," he shared.
Afghan envoy is happy that Afghan cricket is doing well and he calls players as Ambassadors of peace and now people ask about cricket of Afghstan and not drugs or other stigmas.
( With inputs from ANI )