Daily Times

KABUL: The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) is all set to form a women’s national team. The board on Friday confirmed that it is planning to form a team and hand a group of 25 of the best women’s cricketers with a central contract. “To form a national women’s team, ACB had organized a training camp for 40 female cricketers out of which 25 were selected and will be awarded central contracts very soon,” read the statement. “The training camp, which was conducted considering Islamic and traditional Afghan values, concluded today. During the camp, which was commenced on 17th October, the players were trained in batting, bowling, fielding, and to strengthen their physical fitness. As per ICC requirements, ACB wants to have a women cricket team albeit adhering to the traditional Afghan and Islamic values. ACB also intends to hold a training camp in near future for the women’s team in one of the Islamic countries.”

The Afghanistan men’s cricket team are placed 10th in both ICC ODIs and T20Is ranking. Cricket has been played in Afghanistan since the mid-19th century, but it was only early in the 21st century that the national team began to enjoy success. The Afghanistan Cricket Board was formed in 1995 and became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2001 and a member of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in 2003. After nearly a decade of playing international cricket, on 22 June 2017, at an ICC meeting in London, full ICC Membership (and therefore Test status) was granted to Afghanistan and Ireland, taking the number of Test cricket playing nations to twelve. They are the first country to ever achieve Full Member status after holding Affiliate Membership of the ICC.