The ICC is screwing Afghanistan

With all the attention payed to "cricket diplomacy" in the India-Pakistan semi-final match of the recently completed cricket World Cup as well as India's winning the cup and the Indian Premier League nearly here, some diplomatic fallout of a recent International Cricket Council (ICC) decision on the 2015 World Cup has not yet reached full flame. But it will intensify over time because it's screwing a number of nations' cricket programs. For those of you not into sports, I'll get to the point - this isn't a sport blog after all.

Basically the ICC has determined that only the 10 full members of the ICC will be permitted to play in the 2015 World Cup, blocking all associate and affiliate members from qualifying. Granted, the associate members haven't faired terribly well in the few World Cups they have been allowed to play in (with the notable exception of Ireland), but for the top six associate/affiliate members (who are ICC sanctioned to play the ODI format) it means that they'll lose tons of money and experience that their programs desperately need to even hope to ever become full members. In spite of the fact that a couple of the full members (specifically Zimbabwe and possibly Bangladesh) aren't any better than most of the associate/affiliate members.

So what does this have to do with the issues we normally discuss here at Ink Spots? Quite simply, this really screws Afghanistan's team at a time when that country really needs some good news. I've written before about some of Afghanistan's recent cricket successes and while sports will not change conduct of the conflict their home is experiencing, the ICC is dashing one of the few shining lights (however minor in the grand scheme of things) of present-day Afghanistan. Admittedly, Afghan success in a World Cup will not bring peace or even full test status or revenue from ticket and television sales. But among cricket-playing nations, cricket and politics go hand in hand. Last year's IPL draft nearly caused significant political problems on the Subcontinent. This decision in itself exemplifies this - it appears to be taken mainly to protect the two weakest members of the ICC.

The ICC is a club - not the WTO or the G20 or the UNSC - but it's a club. A club that a lot of nations want to be a part of, because it does come with benefits outside cricket (for example, Zimbabwe's return to test cricket was seen as acceptance of that nation's regime by ICC member nations). While no one knows if Afghanistan would have even qualified for the 2015 World Cup, they won't even have that chance now and all because the ICC is looking after its own. In any case, this is screwing them and if there's one thing Afghanistan doesn't need it's getting screwed in yet another way.

A good news story from Afghanistan. No, really.

Since I've been working like crazy lately (hence the dearth of posts), I figured you all wouldn't mind something a little off the beaten path for our usual topics of discussion: Afghanistan's cricket team. After being granted ICC membership in 2001 after the fall of the Taliban regime, they played little cricket until 2009. Since then they've done fairly well for themselves, winning the Asia Cricket Council Trophy this year and sporting a winning record in ODIs, First class cricket, List A, and breaking even in Twenty20 this year. All in all, they have been one of the true success stories in post-Taliban Afghanistan.

But problems still remain, in that in spite of winning the ACC, they were omitted from the Asia Cup (the ACC champion has never been omitted from the Asia Cup before). And they'll need to do well there and in the ICC World Cup if they ever hope to attain test status. A lot of it seems to be politics as the stronger teams to the south of them don't seem intent on giving a potential rival a path to international prominence. Hopefully this will change. You can read more on this here.

Barring any crazy nonsense, Afghanistan is about to put Scotland out for around 100 in the first innings of an ICC Intercontinental first class. In a battle of highlanders, the Afghans are looking the stronger. But don't worry, Ex, there's always the second innings.

UPDATE: Nel and Smith put up a great last-wicket stand, but Scotland still out at 140 at stumps on day 2, trailing by 295. Afghanistan is bringing strong bats and bowling. Great for them.