Out of the Ashes – Tim Albone

Read as part of the sport reading journey

Taj Malik Alam and his family left Afghanistan in 1995 to live, with tens of thousands of their country folk, in a refugee camp near Peshawar in neighbouring Pakistan. Two years later, as an impressionable twelve year-old boy he was infected with a love of cricket as the 1997 Cricket World Cup came to India & Pakistan, with England playing Sri Lanka at Peshawar itself.

Refugee camp cricket was a bit different, played on dirt tracks amid the detritus of the camp, using tennis balls wrapped in gaffer tape and bats that were often just bits of spare wood.

When in 2001, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Americans drove the Taliban into the hinterland, Taj returned to Kabul with an ambitious mission – to bring cricket into his homeland, use it a force for cohesion within the divided land, and create a national team that could help integration with the wider world, projecting a positive image of the war-torn country. And not least, being Afghan, to win everything in sight!

It’s a tall order; few in Afghanistan have even heard of the sport and those that have mistrust it as a foreign, or even worse Pakistani, aberration. Nevertheless through sheer persistence, cheek and daring Taj begs, borrows or cons land, equipment and cash out of government and the wider cricket world, and recruits sufficient players with natural ability, increasing skill but minimal experience, to embark on a remarkable journey.

The target is the Cricket World Cup, the fifty over competition in which the test match playing nations are joined by a few minnows who have to fight their way through qualifying rounds. For the Afghans, new boys initially ranked 90^th in the world, this would mean winning through four tournaments against well established, better resourced countries from all around the world.

As big a challenge as the cricket is the culture shock awaiting the internationally isolated Afghans in the varied and sometimes glamorous locations – Jersey, Tanzania, Argentina, South Africa and Dubai – where the lifestyle is often at odds with their background of poverty and strict Muslim law.

Tim Albone chronicles the adventure through the matches, management disputes and political intrigue with a calm and assured style - this story needs no hyperbole, and the Afghan players are excitable enough. His open access to the squad provides the inside track on extraordinary events.

I’ve followed cricket off and on since boyhood but this book opened up previously unknown strata of the international game with tiny nations or tiny minorities of huge nations competing to claw their way up the hierarchy to have a day in the world spotlight and a shot at the big boys. It’s refreshing and inspiring.